Like many of us, I was disappointed with the total amount of choices carrying over from past games being only three, one of which dealt with romance, two with decisions made in the Trespasser DLC, and all of them being from Inquisition. This already set the precedent that we shouldn’t really be expecting the game to be as connected to our carefully curated Thedas as we have come to be used to from previous titles—no more uniquely flavoured codex entries, no more small but sweet cameos here and there that make the world itself feel like a larger place that we had helped shape.

Given The Veilguard’s very troubled production history of multiple delays, staff layoffs, and all-around restarts of the entire project, it is honestly a surprise that we even got three choices, so credit where credit is due. They made with what they had. But what if The Veilguard had this vision from the start? What if there wasn’t any of this meddling? What if BioWare simply had more time and control? What if they could truly let us import the World State this game deserved?

Now, for this hypothetical rewritten playthrough, I’m going off of the fact that the Dragon Age Keep will not be used; I actually found it a neat idea to tick my three choices in the character creator, and it would have probably been better had Inquisition done something similar. Why do I think that? Because it means we are not running into any dangers of servers potentially shutting down (yes, thank you for that looming Sword of Damocles for all Inquisition players, BioWare) , leaving us trapped in the canon we happened to have imported last. Converting the Keep into an offline editor was a good idea, but unfortunately not executed nearly enough as, let’s face it, we all expected. So we’re gonna have some fun for Veilguard.

Disclaimer: I’m going to refer to the game’s title as Veilguard from now on, not “the” Veilguard. I really don’t like the change of having a “the” in a series of otherwise one-word, or one-number, titles.

Of course, we have to be realistic about this. It is virtually impossible to implement every single decision from across all three games, and those that can be implanted can’t alter the main plot too much. We've had David Gaider explain this very dilemma in great detail when it came to the development of Inquisition. Certainly, we like to imagine and picture things, but let’s approach this from an actually doable point of view. Nobody has limitless resources, and neither shall we.

Right, so imagine you just booted up the game, listened to the killer main menu theme, pressed the start button, and then, before anything else happens, we get an opening narration. But instead of Varric talking about Solas immediately, thereby raising questions for anyone who hasn't played the predecessor, we’re gonna set the stage for the general state of Northern Thedas: with the South experiencing a few years of relative peace, the North is a wholly different story: Tevinter and the Qunari have engaged in a bloody and brutal all-out war that threatens to reach its culmination, the Grey Wardens are growing more reclusive with the Anderfels experienced increased Darkspawn Raids, strange magic thins the Veil and warps reality in Arlathan Forest, a part of the Antaam is now occupying Antiva and Rivain, pirates raid the eastern seas with increased brutality, strange whispers arise from the depths of the Grand Necropolis, basically, everything is in chaos. But Varric is certain that one person is the key to all this. Cue the distant howling of a wolf and six red eyes in the dark. Cut to black.

Instead of being immediately thrown into Rook's character creator, we can choose between either going to said CC, or we can click on another button called “World State”. Not just something about the Inquisition. And it would take up half of the screen instead of being shoved somewhere in the corner of the final CC page, which many people missed. I could have missed it too, had I not known beforehand that it was going to be there! Seriously, the way it was presented in Veilguard was almost like BioWare was going "Hi, hello, yes...it's there...but it's not much and we're kind of ashamed to even show it to you." You can't convince me they were not fully aware of the disappointment many DA veterans would have by how they presented that button.

Now, in our game, when we click on World State, we get this message: “You can customise the protagonists and several events from the games Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age II, and Dragon Age: Inquisition. These choices will have both major and minor effects on this game's plot. If this is your first Dragon Age title, you would be advised to skip this section, as you may otherwise risk getting overwhelmed. A default World State has been created for your convenience.”

Why did I add this disclaimer? Because it would show us, right from the get-go, that we respect both new and old players. If you’re a new player, feel free to skip this part as it won’t matter to you anyway and, quite frankly, you wouldn’t want to spend an eternity in the character creator doing things you might not even be familiar with. But if you’re a returning player or someone who has read up on recaps and watched countless lore videos, come on right in, we’ve got you covered, don’t worry! We know how much time you spent meticulously crafting your World State for Inquisition, so join us and customise to your heart’s content.

If you choose to not skip ahead (honestly the only time I would click “skip” on that shit is if I was a new player), you will be presented with three tarot cards, one shows the griffon, the symbol of the Grey Wardens, one shows Kirkwall’s heraldry, and one shows the Inquisition’s banner. Here’s your previous three games. And now we get to customise them. The little gremlin in me would be quite gleefully rubbing his hands at this prospect.

The way this is going to work is that I'll be presenting all the options we can customise, and then I'll be giving you my own, personal World State, which we shall be using for our rewrite here.

Dragon Age: Origins

We open the first slide and are immediately hit with a crimson screen and an ambient reprise of several of Inon Zur’s themes from DAO. I loved this part in the game, when you click to customise your Inquisitor and are immediately hit with “Calling the Inquisition”. Ugh! PERFECTION! Imagine the same happening with a DAO screen and you're immediately hit with either the main theme or that serene party camp music. Now let’s actually customise things.

The Hero of Ferelden

Before people get too excited: No, I'm unfortunately not going to bring the Hero of Ferelden back for a major role, for the same reasons that prevented them from showing up in DAI. However, and this is a huge however, I do have plans for them nevertheless. And what exactly those plans are...well, you'll see. For now, let us customise what we can.

The Companions

Now that our Warden is set, we jump over to DAO’s companions. Each companion has their own little mini-section. The first few questions will always be “Did you even recruit them? And if so, did they survive? If so, were you on good terms or not?” Meira recruited all companions, was on friendly terms with them, and all survived.

These questions, depending on the answers, will immediately lock or open the more specific ones. Which are, as follows:

The Battle of Ostagar

The Arl of Redcliffe

The Urn of Sacred Ashes

• Who did the Warden support? Meira supported the mages.

The Nature of the Beast

A Paragon of Her Kind

Warden’s Keep

Denerim

Awakening

Now, when we get to Awakening, we get the option to recreate the race, gender, and class of our Orlesian Warden-Commander, but only if the Hero of Ferelden died slaying Urthemiel. If the Warden is alive, this option is locked. Furthermore, we get the same questions about Awakening's companions we got in DAO. Meira recruited all companions into the Grey Wardens and was on friendly terms with them.

Then, there are two more specific questions.

Witch Hunt

• Did the Warden travel through the Eluvian with Morrigan? No, Meira did not.

As you can see, I have not included all the possible choices, but we all remember the question marks over our heads when pretty much nothing of what we ticked in the DA Keep ever came up in DAI. With this more curated set of choices you can be damn well sure that all of them will be taken into account. Not all of them will heavily feature in the game; in fact, many of them are for flavour and codex entries only, but there is still merit in those. We know there is a whole lot of stuff happening in the South thanks to the letters the Inquisitor regales us with. So let’s put some world-state uniqueness to those letters. I do actually have things planned for the South, so stay tuned for that. But in this rewrite, some of these choices will, in fact, feature in a more substantial manner.

And that’s Dragon Age: Origins done! Moving on to the next one!

Dragon Age II

When we enter this screen, the CC assumes Kirkwall’s orangey-yellow tone and we get a reprisal of the key DA2 themes by Inon Zur, the most prominent one being, of course, Hawke’s family theme. This one is not going to be as big as DAO, but there are a few important factors nevertheless, especially concerning possible deaths and survivals.

The Champion of Kirkwall

Unlike the Hero of Ferelden, Hawke will actually be customisable in this one. Because no matter whether or not they were sent to the Fade or Weisshaupt, there is always the potential for them to still be alive. So, here are the choices regarding Hawke:

The Party

Pretty much every companion’s card, aside from a few, will have the questions “Did you recruit them?”, “Are they still alive?”, and “Were they friend or rival to Hawke?” at the forefront. Most of it is gonna be flavour, but it’s still my flavour, dammit! Garrett recruited all possible companions, saw to their survival, and was on friendly terms with all of them.

The Tale of the Champion

Fewer choices are carrying over here compared to DAO, but many of the events that occurred in DA2 are only relevant to Kirkwall’s immediate fate, which is already resolved by the time of DAI. Many of these will be flavour again, but some of them, I’m not going to say which, will definitely have a bigger impact.

Right, we’re done with DA2, let’s move on to the last one!

Dragon Age: Inquisition

And here we get to the big one, the game that most directly impacts much of Veilguard's story. We click on the last page and get the green shades and DAI’s ambience themes, a beautiful reprisal of Trevor Morris’ great hits. I would like to once again reiterate how emotional the CC music made me feel here when I was playing the game. Let us now customise our choices.

The Inquisitor

While the Hero of Ferelden will be a background figure in letters and codex entries, and Hawke more of a minor character with a significant role, the Inquisitor will have a much larger presence. Just how large, you’ll find out soon. But for now, let’s customise them:

The Inner Circle

As with the other companion sections, pretty much all slides here will feature the “Did you actually recruit them?”, “Are they still around?”, and “Are you friends or not?” questions. Alongside a few specific ones that will definitely have more of an impact here. Elera recruited all companions and is on friendly terms with them.

The Path of the Inquisitor

The Inquisition’s Influence

Jaws of Hakkon

The Descent

Trespasser

Again, this looks like a lot, and it is, but bear in mind that a lot of these will only have minor impacts on the story in the form of cameos and codex entries. However, there are several major DAI choices that will have significant consequences.

And that’s the World State editor finally done! I believe all of these choices are able to feature in some capacity, be it big or small. But no matter if it’s a big world-changing consequence or simple flavour texts and cameos, it will still be our Thedas, our own unique version of it that we helped shape.

Now that we have dealt with our World State, it’s time to pick Rook’s background. When I first learned that there would be six factions to choose from, I was honestly very ecstatic. You’re telling me we’re getting six different origin stories for Rook? Did BioWare finally listen to the fans’ wishes to get one more game with DAO-style prologue missions before the big main plot begins? Then I learned that six of the companions you meet would each represent one of those factions, and I was like “Amazing, so you will definitely have one party member with whom you can at least align interests and goals from the very start. One with whom you can already establish some manner of connection and relationship before the adventure begins.”

What we ended up getting was…sort of something in the middle. Your backstory is brought up and you get quite a bit of unique dialogue regarding your factions...at least during the first half. If you’re a Shadow Dragon, there’s a lot of Minrathous dialogue tailored to you specifically. If you’re a Grey Warden, you get some unique dialogue whenever the Blight is involved.

But there was…something missing for me. You see, when we start the game, we’re immediately thrown into this epic mission where Rook, Varric, and Harding find Neve and race against time to stop Solas from tearing down the Veil. It feels very much like we’re starting somewhere in the middle rather than at the beginning. It's the Mage-Templar War all over again but in an even more extreme case. And that, in my humble opinion, is due to the lack of an actual prologue, one that gives us time to properly establish who Rook is. DA2 did not have this problem, as Hawke, for their limitation of being human only, had a very well-crafted and developed background that constantly kept coming up and staying relevant. DAI had the problem that, no matter what race you chose, the Inquisitor still felt more or less like the same person (looking at you, Lavellan, who needed Morrigan to explain elven gods to you). And I do very well remember how sour of a taste that left in many peoples' mouths.

Let us, therefore, assume that we are in the creative executive chair for this game, we're in charge. Let's further assume that we took that criticism to heart and decided to do something about it. So, here’s what the next few parts of this hypothetical rewrite of Veilguard will focus on: creating six unique playable origin stories that would very much be doable without the vampiric leech known as “development hell” hovering over you. This chapter will focus solely on the Shadow Dragon origin story, so stay tuned for the others.

Creating Rook

Once we have finished customising our World State (because we are veterans of the series and did not skip to the default one), we move over to the actual character creator for our main hero. And before we even get to Rook, we get a screen that allows us to pick our background, our faction, our starting place in Thedas.

When clicking on each of the factions' tarot cards, just like in the actual game, we get small introductory texts giving us a little taste for what to expect. Here, however, said text is going to be different to the one we get in DATV.

You see, when reading through those backstories, I got the feeling that all of them sounded like outlines for what could have been the origin story quest. I am actually 100% confident that BioWare planned on including prologue missions at one point but had to scrap them due to development hell reasons. But here's the problem. All of the six backstories essentially boil down to “you upset some higher authority and now your faction wants you out of the spotlight.” No matter where you come from, your essential situation is exactly the same. All the choices regarding Rook’s personality have already been made for us.

Actually playing the origin story allows us to roleplay in a roleplaying game (shocking, I know). So, the origin text we get when we click on the Shadow Dragons is simply going to be:

“You are a Shadow Dragon. This underground resistance opposes corrupt rulers and slavery in Tevinter. Coming from all walks of life, they are determined to bring justice to the people. As a member of House Mercar, a renowned Soporati family known and famed on the battlefield against the advancing Antaam, you have much influence to bring, and much to lose.”

That’s just the small little snippet we see when hovering over the option. But that’s all we’re gonna get for now. There is no mention yet of Rook’s personality as we’ll get to shape it ourselves. But I'm already letting you know, no, we're not going to be able to play a vicious murder hobo here. You can be aggressive and cruel, but not to the point of being an irredeemable monster. Rook still needs to be someone who can be trusted with the main quest. That being said, we're not taking the Marvel approach here, either, where everything you say and do somehow contributes to either a lighthearted joke or being an out-of-nowhere holier-than-thou heroic inspiration for everyone around you. There are instances where that is appropriate, but it has to be earned.

Just like in Veilguard, no matter what faction you take, you can play all races. However, contrary to Veilguard, here the world will actually react to who and what you are in a more substantial manner. I am in no way an advocate for racism and xenophobia. But both of those are very much present in Thedas. Elves are not treated like humans, especially in a place like Tevinter. Commoners are not treated in the same way as nobles. Our job here is to reflect the world of Thedas, not our own. The players are smart enough to differentiate between the two.

• If Rook is a human, they are the direct heir of House Mercar, destined to take over the family name one day. If Rook is a human mage, they have just been appointed to the Laetan status, granting their family more political influence.
• If Rook is a dwarf, they are an adopted scion of House Mercar, which does work with dwarves since, thanks to the ancient treaty between Tevinter and the Dwarven Empire, dwarves enjoy considerably more privileges than elves and qunari.
• If Rook is an elf or a qunari, they are an official slave of House Mercar, but it’s made pretty clear in the beginning that House Mercar’s slaves are slaves in name only, while actually being more akin to paid servants. House Mercar simply refers to them as slaves to stay under the Magisterium’s radar and actually uses them to pass on information to the Shadow Dragons.

For our Shadow Dragon run, we shall be taking on the role of a distinguished gentleman named Verus Mercar, a male human mage. Now that Rook has been finalised, we, at last, click the most-desired button to start the game.

We get another, more specific narration from Varric, where he give us our chosen faction’s backstory. We get a recap on how Dorian and Maevaris founded the Lucerni shortly after the war with Corypheus and how much of a ray of hope this group was in the twisted and corrupt society of the Tevinter Imperium. But then, some of the more powerful and older Altus families began to heavily push against them, eventually leading to Maevaris being framed for treason and losing her seat in the Magisterium. She took all the blame on herself so that Dorian would be able to retain a spotless reputation and continue their work on the great political stage. Maevaris took the remaining Lucerni underground and formed the Shadow Dragons, continuing their mission under a different name. Now unbound by political restrictions, the Shadow Dragons are free to take more radical measures in their fight against oppression and slavery. And Varric is confident that the perfect candidate for his mission can be found in this group.

The Shadow Lair

Our story begins in Minrathous, in the underground base of the Shadow Dragons. And right off the bat, we’re making a change regarding said base’s location. In DATV, it stands in a random building somewhere in Dock Town that pretty much anyone could access. I get that they were probably going for the “hide in plain sight” approach, but let’s have some fun here.

In this rewrite, the Shadow Dragons are literally operating from the underground. Now, Minrathous’ underground system has two things that are very beneficial for a secretive rebellious organisation:

The Shadow Dragons operate from a place called "The Shadow Lair”, a section of an underground district known simply as “The Undercity”. That’s where all the poor and forgotten retreat if they wish to disappear from the world but have no means to leave the city, or criminals who flee the Imperium’s justice system. Slaves who wish to escape. And on that note, let me talk about something else.

I was personally disappointed that Veilguard didn’t really touch on Tevinter’s slavery system. It felt a bit like I was treated with kid gloves and not given the trust to being able to handle dark topics. But Tevinter, as has been established in all DA media before this game, is a pretty dark place for anyone who isn’t a human mage. And it’s important to depict that as it shows the stakes and just how rotten of a society the Imperium is. We need to see what the Shadow Dragons are actually fighting for. It’s not enough to just tell us how much a freedom fighter group we are, no, we need to see it.

Meeting the Leaders of the Shadow Dragons

So Mercar meets with the leaders of the Shadow Dragons, namely Maevaris and the Viper. From this conversation, we get the general gist of what’s about to happen and why we are here: House Mercar decided to get a bit more involved with the Shadow Dragons after both parties discovered a massive plot for something big involving Minrathous' vast slave population. Whatever it is, it’s happening somewhere in Dock Town, and we are to rendezvous with Neve Gallus, a local and renowned private investigator who is in league with the Shadow Dragons, to get to the bottom of this.

Now, let's talk a bit about Maevaris. This is no longer the influential Magister we heard about in DAI and saw in subsequent books and comics. This is the leader of an underground slave-fighting force who still tries her absolute best in making a true difference. Tevinter has been endlessly corrupted for thousands of years. It takes a very strong will to oppose that with absolute conviction. And Maevaris is one such person. She still hasn't lost her sense for fashion and wears elegant yet practical robes. When you stand next to her, you just feel that power and magisterial grace, but not in an oppressive, but supportive and encouraging manner. This is someone we admire and want to follow.

Then we also have Ashur, the Viper. I like the concept they had in Veilguard, so let us expand on it. The Viper is the Shadow Dragons' equivalent of a Spy Master, he who has contacts in all the cities and always knows what's up. How did he manage to establish such a massive interconnected network? Welllllll....more on that later, but those who have read about a certain fan theory regarding him might know where I'm going with this. For now, let's just say he's part of an influential Altus house, which is true! He's secretive, his face is veiled, and not just with a physical way, no, he has an illusion spell placed upon his face, one that distorts and blurs it for anyone who's not supposed to see it...which is everyone.

Exploring the Shadow Lair

After the conversation, we get to have a quick look around the Shadow Lair before leaving for Dock Town. This serves as the Shadow Dragon's general exploration and interaction tutorial, where we get to see just how much love was put into crafting each encounter and interaction.

Entering Dock Town

Dock Town is pretty much right above the Shadow Lair, the gutter above the actual gutter. The entrance to the Shadow Lair is quite hidden with enchantments, known only to Shadow Dragons and their associates.

Dock Town is going to stay pretty similar to what we see it in the game. If there is one place in Minrathous where everyone could mingle without being necessarily immediately prosecuted, though it does still happen when the Templars have it out for you. However, there will be two major changes. The first is that, in addition to the perpetual rainfall thanks to the magic keeping the Archon's Palace aloft, Dock Town is also kept in perpetual shadow. Partially from the Archon's Palace, partially from the high towers and castles around it, Dock Town is just designed, with full intention, to feel like the district of the poor. The atmosphere is gloomy, but those who live here found a way to exist, especially by forming close bonds, not able to afford being all too choosing. And then, there is the other major change: slavery is still a thing. Yes, surprise suprise, the slave-trading capital of the slave-trading nation, notoriously known to the rest of Thedas as the nation that has slaves, has slavery!

Dock Town is…well…a place where ships dock. That includes ships of slave traders and prisoners of war. Tevinter is still locked into a war with the Qunari, so there will be a lot of that reflected in the environment. As we walk through Dock Town, we see guards on high alert, slaves and prisoners being led away in chains. We’re doing some important environmental storytelling here that lets us know exactly why Tevinter is a place that needs to be liberated and changed so desperately.

Meeting Neve Gallus

We find Neve Gallus at the Cobbled Swan, a tavern gloomy like everything else in Dock Town. We find her watching a wisp-powered performance, where Cida Ciconia sings a newly-written song about a Magister who lost all his fortune to a poor but clever thief. Even in Dock Town, magic is everywhere, as Minrathous is the most magically-powered city in the world. Let's reflect that whenever and wherever we can.

We're playing quite a young and well-read Mercar, so our dear Verus has definitely heard of some of Neve's cases before, particularly the one involving her and a group of Venatori trying to summon some kind of ancient demon below Minrathous (as can be read in Tevinter Nights). In this instance, we can choose to be rather geeked out by her, to which Neve responds with mild indifference. Right here, we can see a small change to the Neve we got in Veilguard. This Neve seems, at first, to be even colder to us, completely unwilling to form any manner of friendly bond. This is a first impression but there is more to it, definitely more!

So Neve tells us that a huge part of Dock Town was closed off for a great event, a former small coliseum that hasn’t been used in decades. Coincidentally, several unpurchased slaves and prisoners of war are being dragged into that area. And here we can see that, whenever Neve talks about her case or pursuing the Venatori, something in her changes. She gets more passionate and livelier, especially when the conversation centers around Venatori.

Neve has a good lead to assume that the Venatori are somehow behind this because of course they are. She gives us a recap on what the Venatori are and how she had multiple run-ins with them already. She is to be absolutely certain that Mercar can be trusted as they will need to work together on this. In response, Verus shares his side of the information, that his father, Charon Mercar, who is also a respected Legatus, oversaw a strange pattern in how many prisoners of war and masterless slaves, primarily from places like Ventus and Carastes, Qunari-conquered cities, have simply disappeared, and how surprisingly many military vessels have been transferred to Minrathous. Since Neve is an investigator, it’s fun to make this part of the journey truly feel like a crime mystery.

Once all information has been shared, Neve declares that it’s time to go.

Approaching the Coliseum

Neve takes us across Dock Town’s roofs towards the closed-off area of the coliseum. There, we see just how massively guarded it is. The official excuse for all this is a military rebuilding operation. Horrifyingly, this is much closer to the truth than we realise. There are Imperial Templars and Legionnaires patrolling the outskirts, so we have to find our way in.

Neve directs us to a secret hiding spot, where we meet Tarquin, an Imperial Templar working for the Shadow Dragons. Not even he knows exactly what’s happening, but something big is definitely going on. We don't know Tarquin yet, only that the Viper contacted him and Neve to work together on this. And work together we shall, but a little disagreement arises. While Neve is all about approaching the Coliseum in a stealthy manner by sneaking through the darker, more ruined parts and observe the proceedings from upstairs, where no guards would hinder them, Tarquin suggests hiding in plain sight that would allow us a closer look at everything. Which is why he got us military mage gear.

There are two options before us: do we sneak in from above and observe from the shadows, or do we disguise ourselves as Templars and participate in a more open manner? This right here gives us another choice regarding Mercar’s way of doing things:

So I’m feeling a little brave right now. I think my Mercar would try to do the bold approach to get better results, even if it means a higher risk. For this playthrough, I’m choosing to follow Tarquin and let myself be disguised. Neve begrudgingly follows along.

Entering the Coliseum

A few minutes later, Mercar, Neve, and Tarquin approach the Coliseum gates in disguise. Tarquin wears his Templar armour, while Mercar and Neve are dressed as mages of the Legion.

Once we enter the arena, we have the chance to explore it for a little while. Doing so allows us to encounter the following:

The Imperator

Following our exploration of the Coliseum, we get streamed into a crowd of onlookers as the Imperator of Tevinter’s legions, the Supreme Legatus himself, Magister Aemilianus Laskaris, enters the centre of the arena.

We know from DATV that Tevinter has an Imperator, and the Imperator is not the same as the Archon in this context. While the Archon is the overall ruler, the Imperator is the highest military commander. Think of this guy as Tevinter’s version of Loghain or Gaspard. Laskaris also happens to be one of the loudest voices responsible for forcing the Lucerni out of the Magisterium.

Laskaris delivers a speech in which he proclaims just how atrociously Tevinter is faring against the Antaam. Here we get some early insight into the fact that a large chunk of the Qunari army broke off from Tevinter and is now bearing down on Antiva and Rivain. We don't get an Antaam that abandoned the Qun here. No, instead, all of this is the Arishok attempting to seize as much territory as he can. But even against this smaller Antaam army that still wages war against Tevinter specifically, the Legions are failing.

Laskaris cites lost cities such as Ventus, Carastes, and Neromenian as evidence for the desperate situation Tevinter is now facing. Therefore, something must be done. Something drastic. He presents, to the gathered onlookers, the Salvatio Initiative. Basically, all unpurchased slaves and prisoners of war are to be given to Tevinter’s legions, where Laskaris and the Legates serving under him will perform blood magic rituals to turn them into mindless but ravaging soldiers against the Antaam. Dangerous cannon fodder essentially. He will use tonight’s demonstration to convince the gathered members of the Magisterium to pass a law that will officially permit Tevinter’s legions to use blood magic. Well, we know, Tevinter has always used blood magic behind the aforementioned closed doors, but this will mean that all safety measures are off, all precautions, all careful attempts at hiding it. And the worst part is: since slaves are considered nothing but tools, it won’t even be seen as unethical by the large portion of conservative Senate members. And prisoners of war? Qunari? Who cares about them anyway, right? This is the darkness and true corruption permeating Tevinter. This is exactly why the Shadow Dragons exist to bring the light.

Laskaris then ascends to a viewing platform above the arena. Several doors open and he directs all slaves and prisoners to be brought forth.  They are all wearing the blood collars. Upon the Imperator’s command, him and several blood mages under his leadership, activate the collars and turn the slaves and prisoners into an absolute frenzy. A battle erupts in which the sheer destructive power of the now-mindless fighters is demonstrated.

Mercar now has a choice to make, and it is the biggest one there is in the prologue:

Do we put our personal emotional interest above the greater good or vice versa? Well, because we broke our father’s collar earlier, we can at least assume that he’s going to be able to fight for himself with a clear head, so let’s focus on the blood mages in a stealthy manner.

Neve and Tarquin quickly take us behind the scenes as the crowd watchers in apt interest. There are seven blood mages, including Laskaris, who need to be dealt with. This serves as our combat tutorial as well as the party-of-three format. Since all blood mages are in elevated areas above the onlookers, we can engage them without alerting anyone. First, we jump into a group fight where we take out Laskaris' six blood mages. 

Once they are dealt with, we sneak right up to Laskaris and try to either knock him out or backstab him altogether. This results in the same outcome but tells a lot about Mercar’s personality. Do we kill this guy and end it now? Or do we try and incapacitate him so that he can still be of use for the future?

Regardless, Laskaris sees it coming. He casts a spell on us and throws us into the arena, gliding down himself. What follows is a solo boss battle against the Imperator. It’s a tough battle, one that we are logically meant to lose. If we get Laskaris down to 0HP, miraculously so unless we play on Storyteller mode, the cutscene will slightly change but the outcome remains largely the same.

Laskaris lashes out and wounds us, causing us to fall down, bleeding, losing our mask, exposing ourselves to Laskaris, while the slaves and prisoners stage a mad revolt around us, forcing the gathered magisters and Venatori to flee the scene. But because we freed our father from his collar, he comes rushing in to save us, engaging Laskaris in a one-on-one duel. Despite “only” being Soporati, he puts up quite a fight with his huge two-hander. We want to help him, desperately so, but we are just too weak. Laskaris is impressed by Charon’s strength, but ultimately, deals him a mortal wound. Just before Laskaris turns to finish us off, he is struck in the shoulder by…Bianca!

Varric steps into the fray and fires off a row of bolts against the Imperator, allowing Neve and Tarquin to take us away as we pass out. As they do so, the Viper appears and casts a spell that shrouds the whole arena in fog.

Back at the Shadow Lair

We awaken in the Shadow Lair and are greeted by Varric. It turns out that he was using this whole mission to assess us from the background, to determine if we are the one he’s looking for. And he decides that, yes, we are. Laskaris, the Venatori, all of this is just one puzzle piece of something much greater. We can press Varric on what this could possibly be, but he won't tell us just yet. Instead, he lets us know us that we should disappear. And he might just be able to help with that. We can be incredibly outrageous about this. We just discovered the biggest plot to endanger slaves ever since the Magister Sidereal tore open the Veil to reach the Golden City! We can’t just leave right now to pursue something we don't even know about!

At this point, Maevaris joins us and agrees that Mercar has to disappear for a while, now that Laskaris knows who we are. We can’t be seen with the Shadow Dragons for the time being. Doing so would just endanger the whole cause.

Reluctantly or readily, that depends on our personality, we concede that there is sense in Varric’s words. Varric advises us to adopt a codename as well, like so many agents of the Inquisition did back in the day. He jokingly suggests "Rook" given how we just went for the greatest danger in a straight line. We laugh but accept.

Afterwards we get a final chance to talk to the members of the Shadow Dragons before we depart, and get a last look at the Undercity. Neve returns to Dock Town to keep an eye on Laskaris and the slave rings, as well as search for any Venatori ties.

What follows is a cutscene where Rook and Varric depart the Shadow Lair and leave Minrathous altogether. One last time, Rook looks at the city he swore to fight for, then turns around and follows Varric into the unknown.

Now that we have dealt with the Shadow Dragon origin story, let us move on to the Grey Wardens. And here, we are going to have some fun because boy do I have ideas for this one.

The Grey Wardens were kinda the faction I wasn’t necessarily looking forward to playing at first, and there’s a reason for that. You see, we already played a Grey Warden in DAO, and I actually like each game’s protagonist being someone very different. However, when I think about it now, there is some narrative logic to it. If DAV truly is the last Dragon Age game (which is very up in the air right now), it makes total sense to have this choice to bookend the story. You started as a Grey Warden, and now you’ll finish as one. Plus, with the Blight giving us its last hurrah in this one, it only makes sense to put the Wardens in a more prominent position once again.

So, without further ado, let us jump into the Grey Warden origin story!

Creating Rook

Let us now return to the starting menu. Let's say we're some kind of completionist player who wants to first play through all six origin stories before choosing which one fits us best. Just like in DAO, ey? So, this time, we click on the Grey Warden tarot card. The small snippet reads as follows:

“You are a Grey Warden. An ancient military order sworn to battle the ever-present threat of the Darkspawn, the Wardens undergo secret, unbreakable rites that grant them supernatural powers against the Taint. As the last surviving member of the Dornen outlaws, you joined the order after a passing Senior Warden invoked the Right of Conscription at your execution and gave you the chance to fight another day. But what you will do with it, that is up to you.”

Right there, we have a great canvas to paint with when it comes to sheer roleplay. We are a former criminal, the last survivor defence of a group known as the Dornen. Our group wasn’t, like, evil, but we were enough of a presence in the area in and around Hossberg to cause some proper trouble. The Anderfels is a dangerous land, the most dangerous one in Thedas. People don’t live, they survive. This means that many turn to unlawful ways to make ends meet. But being a former outlaw beautifully lines up with the theme of second chances the order gives to so many people.

In DATV, our Warden’s name is Thorne. “Dornen” is the German word for “Thorns”. The Anderfels’ linguistic and etymological side is mostly based on German (“Anderfels” meaning “Other Rock” or “Weisshaupt” meaning “White Head”). So wouldn’t it be a fun idea if “Thorne” isn’t really the Warden’s last name but just the name they ended up going with? They arguably never knew their family name and the Dornen were as close to one as they could have gotten.

Unlike Mercar, your racial choice won’t really have that much of an impact here as the Wardens accept everyone into their ranks, as long as they can fight. However, if you choose to be a Qunari, it will add a few unique dialogue lines about how few Qunari there are in the order. You are probably one of the only ones.

For this hypothetical playthrough, we shall pick a dwarf warrior by the name of Magor Thorne.

Alright, so we just generated our Thorne, and now we get to hear Varric’s Grey Warden-specific opening narration. We get a series of those beautiful tarot-styled illustrations with Varric’s voice telling us what’s been happening with the Wardens for the last decade. The Wardens in the North specifically have been all gradually returning to Weisshaupt Fortress, by order of the First Warden himself. They have become much more reclusive and secretive than they already were and are sharing practically nothing with the outside world. Something’s definitely going on. And Varric thinks it might be part of something larger. And the order also happens to be the place where he hopes to find the right person for whatever mission he has planned.

Weisshaupt Fortress

And now, for the first time ever, we get to see Weisshaupt Fortress in all its glory, a gigantic fortress carved into the very mountains, the great headquarters of the Grey Wardens that withstood for over a thousand years.

I really like the way Weisshaupt is portrayed in Veilguard, my only gripe is that we never get to actually properly explore it. I was…surprised by that, actually. There could have been at least one mission where we got to see it before the Darkspawn Horde attacked. So what better way to explore Weisshaupt than have it be part of the Grey Warden origin?

This is place filled with such incredibly rich history. Just imagine, it has existed since the First Blight, an event older than the Chant of Light. This is an absolute field day for lore enthusiasts such as myself.

As soon as Weisshaupt appears, we get a grand reprise of Inon Zur’s main theme from DAO, establishing it as the Warden leitmotif. Now that we are able to properly play as a Grey Warden again, we are just eased back into that feeling. We might not be playing the Hero of Ferelden anymore, but we can definitely bring back the heroic feeling. Music is such an important part of storytelling, it’s insane how much a well-chosen theme can do.

Meeting High Constable Janos

Thorne arrives at Weisshaupt after a recent patrol through the mountains, and we are greeted by High Constable Janos, the second-in-command to the First Warden. For some reason that rank never comes up in DATV, so we’re just going to include that here.

Here, we’re going to establish that Janos was the Senior Warden who invoked the Right of Conscription during our execution all the way back in Hossberg years ago. But why would the Right of Conscription even work in a time without the Blight? Well, this is a fair question for any other nation than the Anderfels. But the Anderfels is constantly threatened by darkspawn incursions, making it the only nation where the Right of Conscription still holds weight without a Blight. Given how the First Warden is often seen as an advisor to the King/Queen, one can also say that the Wardens’ whole “no politics” spiel doesn’t really apply in the Anderfels, either.

And why did I choose Janos? Well, he is a character from the actual game, but all we ever see is his dead body. Nevertheless, we still get the impression that he was important and heroic, someone who could be relied upon. So, in this rewrite, he gets a big fat promotion to NPC.

Janos informs us of an upcoming mission, assigned by the First Warden himself. Thorne is to meet him, Janos, and a few others in the war room later that day. It is something quite urgent.

Exploring Weisshaupt

Before we head off to the war room, we get a chance to properly explore Weisshaupt for the first time. And there are some interesting things to be seen and done here:

Meeting the First Warden

After exploring Weisshaupt, we enter the war room, where Jowin Glastrum, the First Warden himself, awaits us. Joining us in the meeting are High Constable Janos and Warden-Commander Caronel.

Now, let me make something very clear about the First Warden. I like that he’s old-fashioned and traditionalist in DATV. I think it was very in-character of him to act distant and dismissive towards people outside the order. However, he is also a Grey Warden first and foremost, he has Thedas’ best interest at heart. He isn’t here just because of status and standing, no, he clawed his way up the ranks through valiant deeds. We know that many Wardens in the Anderfels come from noble lines and still have ties to those. While the First Warden is of a noble house, he doesn’t use that as something to flaunt over the Wardens. His idea of having ties to noble families is a strictly pragmatic one: the more ties, the more aid, the more recruits. While he might not get along with outsiders, he absolutely respects the Wardens under his command and, while not always agreeable, would never meaninglessly sacrifice them. He’s harsh, strict, often an asshole, but still a Warden through and through.

The First Warden briefs us on a mission: A strange crack into the Deep Roads has opened near the village of Lavendel, and a darkspawn horde is gathering for a full assault. Wardens Antoine and Evka are already on-site, preparing the defences.

The First Warden orders us to take charge of the village’s defences alongside Caronel. Under no circumstances are we to abandon post. High Constable Janos will arrive with reinforcements to secure our victory. The idea is to lure the bulk of the horde out of the Deep Roads so that we can slay most of them.

We can inquire why Thorne was chosen for this, since our presence alongside the First Warden, the High Constable, and the Warden-Commander is pretty insignificant, to which the First Warden answers that we are very much due to becoming a Senior Warden ourselves, it’s just this one last assignment left until our promotion.

After the briefing, we leave the war room and encounter Davrin again, with whom we can share in our either excitement or humbleness. In any case, Davrin congratulates us on the soon-to-be promotion, claiming how deserving of it we are and how he would have never thought so upon our first meeting all those years ago.

If we wonder why Davrin wasn’t chosen to head to Lavendel, he’ll tease that he has something else going on, equally important, but won’t tell us what it is just yet as it’s top secret (wink wink caw caw).

Reaching Lavendel

We depart Weisshaupt and leave for Lavendel, a small but significant village not far away from Hossberg. We take a few newly joined Wardens with us, a group consisting of the recruits we met earlier.

Upon entering Lavendel, we are approached by Antoine and Evka, who have been busy preparing the defences. From the ensuing conversation we gather that Thorne is very well-acquainted with them, similar to Davrin, having shared in many patrols across the Anderfels.

While Caronel takes charge of the mission, he trusts our judgment on matters as it is our time to prove ourselves further in the eyes of Weisshaupt. High Constable Janos leaves you be now and heads off to prepare the reinforcements on the other side of the hills.

In the distance, a faint dark red cloud indicates the approaching darkspawn.

Preparing for Battle

Before the darkspawn assault begins, we have the chance to explore Lavendel a little and engage in its defences. During this short segment, we have a few encounters to experience:

Before we commence the battle, there is one big choice to be made about our position and that of the villagers. While Antoine and Evka suggest to pull all Wardens and villagers into the stronghold and brave the storm there, Caronel would rather only keep the villagers in there while us Wardens head out into the open and prevent the darkspawn from getting to them in the first place. We don’t really have enough Wardens to divide, so we must make that choice now:

We choose to evacuate the village, and ourselves, into the stronghold. We feel confident but would rather keep our charges close to us. Being a former outlaw in the Anderfels has taught us how one should never leave their goal out of sight. Our aim is to defend, not to gloriously destroy. This shows us that Thorne is willing to cast the pride of glory aside and choose an arguably safer path.

An Old Friend

Our decision made, we deliver a short speech to the villagers, instructing them to head into the Warden stronghold. We shall follow suite immediately and position ourselves on the walls and in the courtyard. Since we’re familiar with the darkspawn’s habit of digging tunnels, we’ll make sure the basement is accounted for as well.

Once the villagers and Wardens head to the keep, we are approached by a most familiar face: Varric Tethras. This is certainly a surprise. While we’ve never met him in person, we’ve certainly heard and read about him. Varric says he was passing through on an errand of his own and figured he might as well aid Lavendel’s defences with Bianca. While we can question the sincerity of this statement, we can use any help we get.

Varric comments how many Wardens would seek out the more daring and glorious path and is pleased to see that we’re not one of them.

The Battle of Lavendel

Right so we’re all hunched up in the fortress, and the atmosphere is intense. Now, all of us sense the evil just outside our doorstep. The crimson cloud is directly above us. Everyone looks to Thorne and Caronel for leadership while Antoine and Evka keep morale up. Varric, while being easy-going, is very much battle-ready now.

The darkspawn slowly creep through the village like a dark carpet of disease and corruption. We hear the deafening screeches of shrieks in the distance and see various hurlocks and genlocks make their way between the buildings. At this point, a thought comes to us, one we share with Caronel. Holy shit, that’s a lot of darkspawn. And no sign of Janos yet. Where is he? Where are the other Wardens? Surely this can’t be less than the bulk of the horde yet. This is almost like a new Blight.

A horrifying notion grips us and we quickly sense into the Taint for any signs of an Archdemon’s song. To our relief, we hear nothing. The relief is short-lived, however, as the darkspawn reach the stronghold and send in a wave of shrieks to scale the walls.

We engage in a properly gritty fight against the darkspawn and can make use of several ballistae on the battlements. But we quickly realise that this place is just not at all well-prepared. Antoine and Evka’s pre-defences, alongside our inspection, are all that’s keeping this place from being overrun. Why is this in such a shoddy condition?

We then hear fighting from the basement. Ah, so the darkspawn did attempt to dig through. Good that we halted their progress by mending that crack, giving us time to respond.

We head into the basement and confront some hurlocks and genlocks. After the skirmish, we sent several grenades into the tunnel below, causing it to collapse without damaging our infrastructure too much.

Returning to the courtyard, we see something strange. A few of the shrieks have reached a group of villagers, but instead of slaying them, they’re trying to abduct them alive. While this wouldn’t be strange if all villagers were female, given that darkspawn need broodmothers to multiply, they are taking the men, too. What…?

We make short work of the darkspawn, and at this point, some of our newly joined Wardens have fallen, but only the Wardens. Now would be a really good time for Janos to show up.

At this moment, we hear loud dum, dum, dum. Huge footsteps approach. We look at each other and have all the same reaction: Ah shit.

The gates to the courtyard break down and a huge ogre walks in, accompanied by emissaries. Oh boy, here we go. Now would be a really good time for Janos to show up!

We take down the ogre and the emissaries with great difficulty, and see that another large influx of darkspawn follows. After dealing with those, the fighting ceases for a moment.

We head to the battlements and see another group on the outskirts of the village. Then we remember the huge loose rock. Oh yeah, baby.

We quickly load up a ballista and aim across the village, towards the jagged cliff. It takes three shots for the edge to become lose enough, but it works. The huge rock collapses upon the newly approaching darkspawn horde, squashing them all beneath, but taking some of Lavendel’s houses with it.

The triumph is short, however, as we can still sense the Taint in our heads. Further away, past the outskirts of the village, we can already see a new horde of darkspawn amassing. And still no sign of Janos.

We gather a quick emergency meeting between the Wardens, and some start speculating that…Janos might not be showing up. Antoine and Evka are of the same belief, while Caronel holds on to the hope that reinforcements are on their way. Why wouldn’t they be? Wardens stick together.

But what about us? What do we believe? Janos personally recruited us all those years ago, he personally saw to our training. Why would he…but where is he then? Why isn’t he coming? Maybe he was held up? But by what? Was there another darkspawn horde on the other side of the hills? But why can’t we sense them? In fact…why can’t we sense any other Wardens in the immediate vicinity aside from us?

Wherever Janos might be, we have to hold out on our own. But if the darkspawn keep coming, we won’t hold out at all eventually. And if the Wardens die, the villagers will be…what exactly? Killed? Or taken? No villager has died so far. Why is that? What’s going on here?

Eventually, Thorne concludes that if we are to survive, we must seal that damn entrance ourselves.

But how will we go about this? Do we take all Wardens with us, or just a few?

No matter what we choose, we are going against the First Warden’s orders to not leave Lavendel under any circumstances until reinforcements arrive. And at this point, if we are to survive, we have no other choice. We tell Caronel and the other Wardens to secure the villagers’ retreat from Lavendel, while Thorne, Antoine, and Evka head off to seal the entrance to the Deep Roads. Caronel is hesitant at first but comes to agree with you. In Death, sacrifice, true, but the sacrifice has to mean something. Varric offers to accompany us but since he’s no Warden, we refuse. He’s more useful with protecting the villagers without risking getting instantly blighted.

Approaching the Crack

With Antoine and Evka at our side, along with several grenades from the stronghold, we head across the dark hills. A few darkspawn break off from the main horde and try to stop us, but we make short work of them.

After a few short skirmishes, we reach the entrance to the Deep Roads, a very steep crack located between two rocky hills. It is guarded by two ogres. The rest of the horde have already departed for Lavendel. It’s now or never. We might be fewer but two ogres…we can take them. Maybe.

We throw ourselves into a fight with the two giants and slay them after exchanging some fierce blows.

Now that we have a short breathing moment, we must quickly go about sealing that entrance. However, looking at it reveals that we can only collapse it by doing so from below. No use doing it from up here. But this action would cause the Warden who does it to be trapped.

We look at Antoine and Evka and order them to give us the grenades. They initially refuse but we remind them that as Warden Thorne, we have been given charge of this mission. It’s either us or no-one. We take the grenades and bid farewell to our second-favourite Warden couple, ordering them to return to the others. We then recite the oath of the Grey Wardens between us. “In Peace, Vigilance,” says Antoine. “In War, Victory,” says Evka. “In Death, Sacrifice,” says Thorne.

The Deep Roads

We descent into the cavern and find ourselves immediately struck by an overwhelming sense of the Taint. There are more darkspawn here, and they are coming.

We quickly go about preparing the grenades, when we are suddenly stricken by a strange sense. It is similar to the Taint, but also different, almost…purer. Suddenly, we become incredibly aware of the cavern around us. We can sense each layer, each type, each consistency. We can sense hidden passages, the tunnels the Darkspawn are digging right now. And we feel…whole, strangely so. And this is only something we experience if we picked a dwarven Thorne, for we are experiencing Stone Sense.

At this moment, a figure approaches us from the dark. We look up and see a tall, cloaked being, wearing dark armour that we can’t recognise. We can definitely sense the Blight in it, but it’s…weirdly different in a way we can’t describe. The figure has veins of lyrium writhing all around its form, red lyrium.

It speaks to us, but we can only hear its voice in our head. It asks us to stop, to let be done what must be done. When we ask who and what this thing is, it simply refers to itself as “The Emissary”. While the Emissary won’t tell us exactly why it wants the villagers, it hints at a great and regrettable mistake that has to be rectified before it’s all too late.

Being the Warden we are, we attempt to still go through with our grenade plan, but the Emissary casts a spell of pure, raw magic on us, causing us to be knocked against a wall. But we refuse to go down fighting and challenge the Emissary to a duel.

Similar with Laskaris in the Shadow Dragon origin, the Emissary is a fight we aren’t meant to win. But if we lower its HP to 0, the cutscene will be a little different.

In our seemingly dying breath, we hurl the grenades against the weakest parts of the crack, which we can clearly determine due to our Stone Sense. The Emissary retreats into the dark as the rocks descend upon us, sealing the Deep Roads off of Lavendel for good. All turns black around us.

Saved

But strangely enough, this isn’t the end. We wake up back in Lavendel and see Varric. He says he followed us in secret as he had a feeling we might be needing assistance. When Antoine and Evka showed up without us, he increased his pace and the three made it just in time. Varric climbed down and found us in the rubble, saving us from certain death.

Antoine and Evka join us and profusely apologise for leaving our side, despite us ordering them to do so. Well, it seems the Wardens in general have a feeling for disobedience as of lately.

When we inquire about Lavendel, we are told that everyone is safe and none have been taken. This is because of the time we took to explore the place before the battle. By sealing the basement and collapsing the great rock, the darkspawns’ numbers were too few for what came next.

But…what came next? We find out the moment we walk outside.

A whole entourage of Wardens hurry about Lavendel. The reinforcements arrived after all. Or so we think.

High Constable Janos and the First Warden approach us. When we remark on the lateness of the reinforcements, the First Warden orders us imprisoned. What? Why? For disobedience, of course. We see that Janos is uncomfortably silent during this exchange.

But we saved Lavendel. We repelled the darkspawn horde and sealed the entrance to the Deep Roads. What could he possibly be so mad about? It can’t just be about disobedience, right?

Well…as we slowly, horrifyingly learn from the conversation, Lavendel wasn’t meant to survive. All who were there, Wardens and villagers alike, were supposed to fall to the darkspawn.

Here we get the context: the Calling has been manifesting in more and more older Wardens. At the same time, Weisshaupt is receiving fewer and fewer recruits. This combination will eventually have the effect of the order facing extinction. And outside the Anderfels, the Right of Conscription means less than nothing now. The world has grown complacent in a world without the Blight, even though the recent one has only been twenty years ago. And the Anderfels doesn’t have a large enough population to feed the ranks on its own.

By using this abnormally large darkspawn horde, letting it consume villagers and Wardens alike, the First Warden hoped to convince the nobility to encourage greater recruitment again. It can’t be a coincidence that the Calling has been manifesting increasingly more frequently now.

But Thorne has been a thorn in this plan’s side and ensured that the First Warden’s plan backfired spectacularly.

Shocked, we turn to Janos and ask him if he was aware of this. Yes, he was. In Death, Sacrifice. In War, Victory. And the war isn’t over as long as Razikale and Lusacan still slumber beneath the surface.

Caronel has been stripped off his rank as Warden-Commander of the Anderfels and Antoine and Evka will be assigned to very far-away duties for the foreseeable future. Thorne, however, as the instigator of this chaos, is to be tried for disobedience.

This is where we can lash out, accusing the First Warden of having lost his way. We can also add that Lavendel’s villagers wouldn’t have died anyway as the Emissary wanted to collect them. When we tell the Wardens of what we saw beneath the surface, the First Warden, as we would assume, does not believe us, assuming we’re using this as a convenient excuse to paint ourselves in a more heroic image. Janos, however, knows us, so he isn’t so sure.

At this point, Varric chimes in and argues against trial and imprisonment, stating it as just a waste of effort. Instead, he offers to take Thorne away for a matter of great importance. The First Warden objects, stating that Weisshaupt’s affairs are to remain its own. Janos, however, in a change of tone, takes Varric’s side. Whatever Thorne’s reasonings are, one can’t deny that we are a true Warden. NO matter the disobedience, we fought against the Blight and won. The Hero of Ferelden and Alistair constantly meddled in politics to win against Urthemiel, and they are seen as living legends. Stroud disobeyed Clarel's orders, which is why the Wardens in the South are not all dead now. There will be other opportunities to gather more recruits, but we do not deserve a trial for doing what we joined the order for.

The First Warden eventually relents. Remember, he is still a Grey Warden, with Thedas’ best interest at heart. Him doing this whole Lavendel thing was him acting out of desperation to keep the order alive in the long run. The morality is incredibly questionable, he’s definitely an asshole, but he is not heartless. Rather than putting us in chains, the First Warden suspends us from all Weisshaupt duties and instead tasks us with travelling the lands, searching for new recruits until further notice. Dismissed.

Leaving Lavendel

When the First Warden leaves, Janos makes an attempt at conversing with us, apologising for sending us into death. We can be either understanding, or angry, or just hurt. Despite our rough exterior, we are hurt because Janos was the one who saved us from another execution in the first place. Janos definitely feels bad about it, but orders were orders. Yeah…orders were orders, we respond.

Varric approaches us and confesses that he’s not here by accident. He’s looking for someone among the Wardens to accompany him on a very special mission of utmost importance. He heard from some of his contacts that Weisshaupt would have fitting candidates. And he is certain he just found the one. What exactly are we doing, now that we’re stuck with him? Varric promises to reveal everything in good time. Now, he would very much like to get out of this place. We can either go immediately or have some final conversations. Being the completionists we are, we of course choose the latter.

Once all of this is done, we head to Varric and and half-enthusiastically announce our readiness to depart. Varric smiles and welcomes us to the team. What team? Oh, we’ll see. But he recommends us going by another name for the foreseeable future as the First Warden might just be petty enough to make our life more difficult by telling foreign Wardens or members of the nobility about our streak of disobedience and conspiracy theories. And he has just the one for us. We went into this fight in a straight line, took most of the ire upon us, and dealt the enemy a crippling blow. Just like a certain figure on the chessboard. He gives us the nickname Rook.

Now going by Rook, we head off with Varric. As Lavendel is nearly out of sight, we turn around and look at the gathered Wardens one last time. This…is not how we pictured leaving the order one day. But no, we haven’t left it. We’re just…taking a vacation. With a heavy heart, we turn back to Varric and follow him into the unknown.

Prologue

Part 4 - The Veil Jumpers

The Veil Jumpers are…interesting, the way they are presented in the game right now. At first you might assume they are Dalish, but then they are not, or at least not anymore, because they let anyone join their group. Then they all seemingly know about the true nature of the Evanuris and actively oppose them.

I have to admit, when the one faction that strictly deals with matters of the ancient elves and has the most visible Dalish influence, I expected a bit…well…more Dalish behaviour, I suppose. When I saw how Strife and Irelin responded to the Evanuris returning, I had a bit of a “…huh…” reaction. I expected at least some elves to have a crisis of faith, and Bellara contemplating how horrible this is for one or two scenes (in a quirky way at that) does not really count in my opinion.

So, in the Veil Jumper origin story we are about to experience, we have to tackle the following questions in a satisfying manner:

At least one of these questions is going to be answered with “this doesn’t happen in the rewrite." I’ll let you guess which one it is.

So, without further ado, let us experience a potential Veil Jumper origin story!

Creating Rook

For a third time, let us return to the CC page that lets us choose our background faction. This time, we choose the Veil Jumper origin, and the little blurb text reads as follows:

“You are a Veil Jumper. This daring group explores ancient elven ruins in Arlathan Forest. Initially founded by the Dalish, they now, albeit reluctantly, accept anyone into their ranks who is brave and cunning enough to face Arlathan’s reality-warping magic. As one of their senior members, you are quite familiar with the preserved lore of Elvhenan and are now entrusted with leading an expedition into the unknown. But will that trust be warranted?”

I think the Veil Jumpers are the trickiest faction to explain the “you can play all races” angle. The Shadow Dragons consist of the oppressed and those willing to fight against tyranny, the Grey Wardens literally cannot afford to discriminate, but the Veil Jumpers? They were, quite probably, founded by the Dalish clans who lived in Arlathan Forest. And if there is one thing, one crucial trait the Dalish are known for across all previous games, is the fact that they really don’t like outsiders. Clan Lavellan was one of the exceptions to the rule.

So, for this rewrite’s version of Veil Jumper Rook, I’m going to do some world building to explain just why everyone brave and cunning enough is welcome to join them. Because all the building blocks are right there in DA lore, we just have to use them.

Let us go back to Tevinter Nights where we meet Strife and Irelin. We know they are from Clan Morlyn, Strife specifically having joined it after coming from a city elf background. We can presume that Clan Morlyn remained in Arlathan Forest to study and combat the wild magic awakening in it. Eventually, however, Clan Morlyn realised they were just too outnumbered against this raw power. So, begrudgingly, they chose to expand. At first, they picked up the straggling remnants of some of the other Dalish clans who lived in or traversed through Arlathan Forest, none of them numbering enough to survive on their own. But even that didn’t get Clan Morlyn the desired effect.

Clan Morlyn started taking in former prisoners of the Antaam (who were deforesting the place a few years ago), but that was not enough. By then, however, they slowly began to accept outside help, even share in their knowledge of the elven past. They looked at Clans Ralaferin and Lavellan as examples of what can happen if the People open themselves up more. While it is risky, it also brings rewards.

Eventually, the Dalish and the outsiders all merge into one large Clan Morlyn, of which several members form the Veil Jumpers, a force of knowledge and protection.

Now, as we know of Dalish naming customs, there is the first name, the family name, and the clan name. Rook’s Veil Jumper name is Aldwir, doesn’t sound very elven to me. But what if Rook’s name is their first name, then Aldwir, and then Morlyn? But how would that work for the different races being all named Aldwir? Well, here’s how we do it: they are all part of the same family. But how does that work?

Early into this expansion of Clan Morlyn, a Dalish woman, let’s call her Itha, and a human man, let’s call him Beldon, met, fell in love, and married. Both had lost their previous spouse and found very common and loving ground. The man’s last name was Aldwir so they chose that one for the new union. Here’s how Rook’s race affects this backstory:

For our playthrough, we shall be taking on the role of a female Dalish elf mage named Ashara Aldwir Morlyn.

So, once we finalise our Aldwir, Varric continues with his narration, pretty much summarising the Veil Jumper backstory I just proposed there. He also emphasises on how perilous and dangerous their expeditions into Arlathan Forest are.  But because of their knowledge to all things Elvhenan, he thinks this is the perfect place to look for the right person for his endeavour.

The Veil Jumper Camp

We begin our story in the Veil Jumper camp, and one thing I’d like to establish pretty early on is that the camp is incredibly mobile. It’s been visually alluded to in the game, but I really would like to highlight the use of aravels here, showcasing the faction's Dalish origins.

The opening scene starts with the aravels sailing through the forests, until they reach and make halt at a great lake surrounded by tall trees. In the distance, we can see some amazing elvhen ruins that are surprisingly still more or less intact after all these years.

We’re also going to be immediately made aware of the fact that Arlathan Forest has some strange stuff going on with the Veil as there are just so many floating buildings and other anomalies scattered throughout the woods, the shores of the lake featuring an extensive amount on their own. It is important to point out that, while Arlathan Forest always had odd stuff going on, this amount of reality-warping only started occurring twenty years ago, right after the Fifth Blight had ended. A bit of a clue to something important later.

A note on the lake itself: This is, of course, meant to be the Arlathan Crater, where the ancient Tevinter magisters waged their final battle against the elves before sinking the city into the ground, or so we are meant to believe. I’m going to announce an immediate change right now and say that we are not going to see the ruined capital city of Arlathan here. Because…reasons. Either it’s sunk into the ground, or…well, something else.

Meeting Irelin

The game starts with us stepping out of our aravel, because yeah we get one, pretty cool right? Irelin, one of the Veil Jumper leaders, wants to see us. This is our big day, today we begin our expedition, and now we actually get to hear what this expedition is all about:

The Veil Jumpers have been observing a cave on a small island in the lake for a while now. It could lead to the ruins of a part of Arlathan itself, which is still rumoured to be sunk deep beneath the waves. Our first task is to head to D’Meta’s Crossing, get our supplies, gather our team, and head off. This expedition, consisting of three people, shall be led by us, Aldwir, Bellara, one our most accomplished elven historians, and…Merrill.

So, with Merrill, I am approaching this from a very simple perspective: If she’s alive, she’s here. If she isn’t, she just isn’t. But if she is alive, she can have something to do.

Our next immediate goal is to head to D’Meta’s Crossing, where we shall meet Strife and Bellara, who need to give us some additional briefing.

Exploring the Veil Jumper Camp

Before we head to D’Meta’s Crossing, Aldwir has the opportunity to do some exploration of the Veil Jumper camp. At this point, we can have the following encounters here:

D’Meta’s Crossing

So, D’Meta’s Crossing will have a bit of a different role in this rewrite. You see, when playing Veilguard, I wondered how such a village could exist in Arlathan Forest, inhabited by both elves and humans and a human mayor to boot. How is this possible?

Well, thankfully, the worldbuilding we’ve done a little earlier gives us the perfect way out: D’Meta’s Crossing is the settlement Clan Morlyn and the Antaam survivors constructed for themselves after deciding to build a community together. This is where the civilised, non-fighting part that isn’t the Veil Jumpers resides.

However, I am going to change the character of the mayor. Instead of a generic slimy human guy, this rewrite’s version of the mayor is an elven man named Venalin, who is also the Keeper of Clan Morlyn. The idea here really is to show just how much the Dalish of Arlathan Forest were willing to adapt due to necessity. The character of Julius, who is the mayor in the actual game, will instead be acting as Venalin's assistant. He used to be an Imperial Templar, one of the office clerk types like Tarquin, based in Ventus when it was conquered, one of the Antaam's prisoners who escaped into Arlathan Forest.

Our goal in D’Meta’s Crossing is to find Strife and Bellara to fully get our little expedition going. But first, we can do some initial exploration of the settlement:

An Old Friend

When we reach Strife, he is currently in a meeting with Keeper Venalin, Irelin, and, as, of course, needs to happen, Varric Tethras. Strife introduces us as Aldwir, the leader of the upcoming expedition into Arlathan Crater. Here we get to really see that Strife grew up as a city elf. He just has that connection with outsiders that only the rarest Dalish elves possess. Keeper Venalin is, of course, known to us. Since we’re playing a Dalish elf here, he is extra fond and respectful towards us.

Varric, of course, knows Strife and Irelin from the Missing comics. He doesn’t know Aldwir, though. In our exchange with him, we can establish just how Dalish we are. Despite Clan Morlyn now containing non-elves, do we act as forthcoming to actual outsiders, or are we distant?

Since Merrill is part of the Veil Jumpers in this World State, however, the two share a heartfelt reunion, and we learn that it was actually Varric who encouraged her to join up in the first place. That will immediately make him a more respected figure among the Veil Jumpers as Merrill is one of the best historians and researchers around, equal only to Bellara. This reunion carries a sombre tone, however, as Hawke is presumed dead, and both can relate to that feeling.

Speaking of Bellara, Strife tells us that she’s already gone scouting ahead and awaits us at the entrance to the cave, where we shall commence the expedition together.

When we announce or readiness to depart, we make our way to an aravel repurposed for aquatic travel and set sail across Arlathan Crater.

Arlathan Crater

As we sail across the great lake that once supposedly hosted the great city of Arlathan, we get some really atmospheric shots of Arlathan Forest and truly get a feel for how magical and ancient this place is. This origin story must really come across as a proper adventure, where we’re hunting for old relics and uncovering ancient history, almost like an Indiana Jones film.

We get to have some conversations with Strife, Irelin, Varric, and Merrill, especially with the latter two. When Merrill wonders what brought Varric here in the first place, Varric dodges the topic a little and promises to tell her later. All he can say is he’s on a search. Another quest for the remnants of the Inquisition, perhaps?

As we pass some ruins sticking out of the water, we get a short history lesson on how Tevinter sunk the city into the ground with their blood mages long ago and we can react accordingly, establishing Aldwir’s personality a little more.

This is also a good point to establish how wild the magic of Arlathan Forest is. Strife and Irelin are specifically coming with us to shield the island we’re on from collapsing back into the waters while we’re off investigating underground.

Meeting Bellara

We then arrive on a small island far out on the lake, and find Bellara’s own, smaller boat. Bellara herself has already set up a whole campsite in front of the cave, which looks more like a looming crack into the voids of the earth.

Now, Bellara is someone I would like to expand on in the rewrite. For now, however, all we know of her is that she and Merrill are the Veil Jumpers' leading historians. She is incredibly smart and almost obsessive over gathering and deciphering as much knowledge of the ancient world as possible.

After some back and forth that shows us Bellara’s sheer excitement for what we’re about to do, it’s time to depart into the crack. Strife and Irelin remain above and Varric asks to come along as the fourth member of our little expedition. Strangely enough, however, Merrill is against it. She seems strangely erratic all of a sudden. She really doesn’t want Varric down there. But she can’t properly explain why. So, here we have our first big choice:

I’m choosing to play Aldwir as willing to cooperate with the outside world in honour of Clan Morlyn letting non-elves into their midst, and our stepfather being a human man, so that’s what we’re going with. Merrill seems resigned to something but however we try to gauge the answer from her, she won’t speak up.

The Crater Ruins

We descend into the crater and soon find ourselves traversing a great selection of underground passages. As we do so, we get to see a few strange and marvellous things:

At some point, we suddenly sense a strange magical reverberation go through the ruins, and we’re attacked by a bunch of ancient guardian constructs, serving as this origin's combat tutorial. After defeating them, we sense a great surge of magic from deeper within the ruins and follow it, albeit cautiously.

The Great Gate

At some point, we reach a huge gate, which is secured by two complex locking mechanisms. In order to open it, we need to enter two separate rooms and solve the puzzles within. They’re not going to be too outrageously hard, but still enough of a challenge to get one thinking.

Once the statues are reassembled, it almost looks like they’re facing each other across the rooms. But why are June and a dragon that looks suspiciously like Urthemiel connected to each other? Well, those who played the game already know the lore answer, but I’m going to present these connections in a bit of a slower way than Solas expositioning it all to us.

It's safe to say that Bellara is absolutely ecstatic about all this and has the time of her life, while Merrill, whom we know to be passionate about elvhen history from DA2, is surprisingly quiet.

Suspicious Behaviour

As soon as we’re about to enter through the gate, Merrill suddenly looks as though she’s having a collapse of some sort. Tired, she sits down and closes her eyes. Varric is, understandably, worried about her, but a moment later, she’s back to normal. What was that? What is going on? At this point, our Aldwir is getting a little suspicious. First the insistence of keeping Varric out of here, now this. What is going on? Does Merrill perhaps know more about this place than us? Is there something she’s not telling us?

As Merrill starts to slowly break under the pressure, Varric steps in and defends her from our questioning. Had we not taken him along, we might have heard more here. But now, all we can do is press on and watch for anything perilous.

The Hammer of June

As we descend further into this strange Temple of June, we slowly advance to the bottom of Arlathan Crater, where that odd building with the glowing windows could be seen earlier.

We make our way through the remaining passages, fighting a few guardian constructs along the way, until we enter what appears to be some sort of inner sanctum. A large but defect eluvian decorates the back wall.

In a glowing bubble-like sphere, presumably the source of the glow, we see a hammer, and it’s the most magnificent hammer we have ever laid our eyes upon. It’s as long as a staff and infused with lyrium and, since we’re a mage and can sense it, the raw magic of the Fade.

Bellara and Merrill share a historical geek-out moment as they both immediately come to the conclusion that this must be the Hammer of June, the ancient tool the God of Craftsmanship used to build great marvels along with Sylaise, among other works of beauty. If it’s not that, then at least it must be something similar.

As a Dalish elf, we have a moment of absolute reverence that we may have found something that truly belonged to one of our gods.

You can see that I have changed something here: Unlike in the game, not everyone knows the truth about the Evanuris here. Of course, some do, some of the Southern Dalish clans know, some elves in the North know, but not everyone. This is to set up something later in the game.

Now we are presented with another choice:

Merrill encourages getting Veil Jumper back-up, as does Varric, for wow does he have experiences with ancient things exploding. Bellara, however, wants to remove and examine it right now. As a very curious Dalish elf, we agree with her and choose to try and remove it now. Something about that greatly seems to upset Merrill.

So, in order to free the hammer from this strange bubble, we would have to somehow dismantle this complex mechanism that’s somehow still intact after all those millennia.

Upon exploring, we find a lyrium-infused base. However, in order to fully access the mechanism, one requires blood magic. Since Merrill is with us, she reveals her blood mage powers, willing to spill her own blood to open the bubble. Bellara, however, offers to use her own magic to access the intricate system built by the ancient elves (I refuse to call it Technomancy because that just does not fit into the DA setting). Now we have another choice:

So, at this point, my Aldwir is a bit suspicious of Merrill’s erratic behaviour early on and chooses to trust Bellara on this one. Besides, blood magic isn’t exactly great and my Dalish knows that.

Giving our go-ahead, Bellara begins to slowly override the mechanism’s magic with her own. The base flares up, but then begins to crack. Before we can do anything else, the bubble shatters and the hammer falls onto the ground.

However, this unorthodox approach has awoken something as we hear the ground shake. Then, a gigantic construct shaped like an elven warrior appears from below. It bears June’s vallaslin, which begin to glow. This ensues a boss battle, where we have to destroy the Sentinel of June.

During the battle, the entire room slowly gets wrecked and water starts spilling in. In the end, the Sentinel of June is defeated, but we are left severely beaten and battered.

Betrayal

As we struggle to take the hammer and deliver it to the surface, the great eluvian in the back suddenly comes to life. An entire group of elves bursts through, led by a tall elf with long white hair.

Varric is stunned, for he recognises the man, albeit faintly. “Abelas?” he asks, confused.

Yes, this scene marks the return of Abelas from DAI. Yes, he could theoretically have been stabbed in the back by Morrigan, but there is nothing to say that he couldn’t have survived that wound.

Abelas quickly corrects Varric and now refers to himself as Revas, calling back to Solas hoping he would find a new name for himself. He no longer stands for sorrow but for freedom. For he is now the Dread Wolf’s lieutenant, very much committed to aiding him in his plans to restore Elvhenan. The elves we are facing are agents of Fen’Harel.

So yeah…I know the AMA on Reddit revealed that Solas broke off contact with his agents a while ago, but…no.

So, for this rewrite, the agents of Fen’harel are very much active and Abelas, now going by Revas, is their leader.

And it is here where we are hit with a very unfortunate truth: Merrill is an agent of Fen’Harel, sent specifically to infiltrate the Veil Jumpers and get first-hand intel on the recovery of ancient elven artefacts that Solas might need for his plans. And he definitely requires the Hammer of June. This was Merrill’s final mission. When she went dizzy and sleepy earlier, she was actually letting Revas know that he could come and collect the hammer. And that’s why she didn’t want Varric coming along.

So yeah, if we choose to play the Veil Jumpers as our origin story, we get a much earlier look at Solas’ plans, as the agents of Fen’harel are our direct faction enemies.

Varric is absolutely dumbfounded by this revelation and can only ask Merrill why she would ever join the Dread Wolf, knowing what he plans to do. Merrill begins to break down, but before she can form an answer, Revas interrupts the conversation by claiming the hammer.

We are now engaged in another boss battle, this time against Revas and the agents of Fen’Harel. Had we followed through with Merrill’s blood magic ritual, we would ironically have better odds now as the Sentinel of June wouldn’t have awoken and wrecked the place earlier.

Revas absolutely destroys us. Then, he offers Bellara and Aldwir, given our Dalish heritage, the chance to join Fen’harel right now and live to see the old world restored. But both of us are too stunned by the fact that the Dread Wolf is among us. Imagine being a Norse pagan in real life and finding out that Loki has returned and is currently planning to kickstart Ragnarök. That’s pretty much what we’re going through right now with our Aldwir.

Before we can even properly contemplate this idea, Varric interjects and chastises Revas and the other elves for wanting to doom the people they share a world with right now. This angers Revas, for he is an ancient elf and shares Solas’ notion that the Veil is a wound that must be healed. He uses the hammer to deliver an absolutely brutal blow to us and the whole facility, which begins to finally crumble beneath the weight of Arlathan Crater's waters. The last thing we see before we get absolutely crushed by the water is Revas ordering the elves to retreat through the eluvian, including Merrill. She gives us one last incredibly heartbroken look, and follows through. Revas disappears last and the eluvian goes dark, before shattering.

Aldwir, Bellara, and Varric are swept away by the waters of Arlathan Crater. Bellara is able to cast a spell that shields her and Varric from the impact, but Aldwir is thrown in a completely different direction. We then lose our conscience.

Rescue

Aldwir is faintly drifting in the waters of Arlathan Crater, until, quite unexpectedly, a large fish picks us up and carries us to the surface. There, we are lifted into the air by Strife, who levitates us onto our aravel. The fish jumps into the air and turns back to Irelin, who lands on deck. Yeah…for those who haven’t read Tevinter Nights: Irelin is actually a shapeshifter. Thanks for not including that, DATV.

Healing

We wake up at our parent’s house in D’Meta’s Crossing, where Itha tends to our wounds.

She informs us that Varric and the Veil Jumpers saved us from certain death in Arlathan Crater. At this stage, we can show Aldwir being a bit vulnerable should we choose to. It’s not often that we get to interact with actual parental figures in DA.

Beldon joins the conversation and asks if maybe now is the time to take a little break from the Veil Jumpers.

When we head outside, Strife, Irelin, and Varric await us. Bellara is nowhere to be seen and we are told she has already returned to Arlathan Forest, in preparation for a new expedition, as she needs to get her mind focused now.

It is here where we find out that all three already knew that the Dread Wolf has returned and seeks to restore the ancient world of Elvhenan. What we just saw down there is but a fraction of his agents. Varric still can’t believe Merrill is among them and wonders what the Dread Wolf could have possibly done to convince her.

We also learn the true reason for Varric’s visit: he needs to recruit someone in his fight against the Dread Wolf. He was of the assumption that the Veil Jumpers were the perfect place to look. And it seems that he was right, as Aldwir is standing right there.

The implication is clear: we are to leave the Veil Jumpers and join Varric on his quest. We can either protest or accept immediately. Since my Aldwir is very much devoted to the cause, we shall object at first. But then Strife and Irelin let us know that Merrill may not even have been the only agent of Fen’Harel planted amidst the Veil Jumpers. And now they would know who we are if we reveal our survival. Joining Varric is a perfect cover-up, and they would never see us coming.

We are also encouraged to change our name for the duration of this whole affair. Varric chimes in and comments how, again, we went straight for the goal, and if it wasn't for Revas being the Queen analogy here to the Hammer's King, we'd have performed a flawless check-mate. He gives us the name Rook.

Leaving D’Meta’s Crossing

We are given a bit of time to pack our things and join Varric outside the village. There are a few things we can do here:

Once we’re done, we join Varric and express our readiness to leave. Going by Rook from now on, we accompany our new dwarven friend into the wilds of Arlathan Forest. As we reach a small hill, we turn back to view the almost idyllic nightly image of Arlathan Crater, D’Meta’s Corssing, and the Veil Jumper camp in the woods. We turn back and follow Varric into the unknown.

Prologue

Part 5 - The Antivan Crows

The Antivan Crows might be the one faction next to the Grey Wardens of whom we know the most about. They’re hired assassins, cold and brutal and calculating. They recruit children and mercilessly raise them to be killers. The Crow training involves killing your own peers to emerge as the victor. They keep a prison off the coast of Antiva City, where they hold people for “fun and torture”. The life of a Crow is rewarding, true, but it is also filled with darkness and a lot of blood. With all this canonical info established, we can confidently say that the Antivan Crows, while undoubtedly resourceful and clever, are not necessarily very nice people.

So why are the Antivan Crows in Veilguard so nice?

When I pictured the Antivan Crows before DATV released, “idealistic freedom fighters” wasn’t exactly what I thought of. Yet this is their entire role in the game, slightly controversial freedom fighters who fight against impossible odds.

Well, as you’ve seen with my takes on the Shadow Dragons, the Grey Wardens, and the Veil Jumpers in earlier chapters, such a depiction can make sense if you just take your time to explain it in the lore. Why would the Crows suddenly be so much more of a force for good than they were in the other games? This, along with many other questions, shall be answered in just a tiny moment.

This is my take on a potential Antivan Crow origin story. Have fun!

Creating Rook

So, for the fourth time (wow we’re really stuck in that starting phase, are we), we return to the CC and pick the Antivan Crow tarot card. The little blurb reads as follows:

“You are an Antivan Crow. Swift knives in the dark, the Crows are ruthless assassins, both respected and feared. Some see them as nothing but cold-blooded killers, others as Antiva’s shadowy protectors who hold the nation’s true power. As a member of house de Riva, now a full-fledged Crow, you are summoned to take part in a secretive Crow operation in the occupied Treviso. Your first true contract is waiting for you. But are you worthy of fulfilling it? Are your skills, and your blades, sharp enough?”

Straight off the bat, of all the factions in this game, the Antivan Crows have the absolute easiest way to explain the last name applying to all races. House de Riva is simply the last name all crows belonging to that house choose. It’s just the way it is, no matter what race you are or where you came from. The question is: how exactly did Rook join the Crows?

Well, here’s where we’ll tap into the organisation’s more controversial and darker side. Here we go:

The Crows don’t really care about race or status when it comes to recruitment. But no matter who they recruit, the training starts in their childhood and lasts all the way until Crow membership. It’s tough and brutal. And we need to reflect that, guys, Thedas is not a friendly place. Especially in the North. Especially at this time.

In all four cases, Viago, who is now the Fifth Talon and leader of House de Riva, took us in personally and often trained us himself, sometimes along with Andaratei “Teia, please” Cantori. They are, for the lack of a better word, the closest thing to parental substitutes we’re going to get. And we’re going to make this amusing because Viago relentlessly and mercilessly throwing shade at us while secretly carrying some level of fondness is a very very engaging dynamic.

Our Antivan Crow shall be a tall and graceful Qunari woman by the name of Gia de Riva.

Once we’ve finalised Gia, we press the start button and Varric begins his narration. And we get to learn a little bit more about the actual state of the Crows by the time we begin the game: First Talon Caterina Dellamorte called upon a special gathering of Crows in the city of Treviso, the organisation’s ancestral home, which is now being occupied by the Antaam, but not the main branch. This is a large unit sent to Antiva by the Arishok, who himself is still waging war against Tevinter. This part of the Antaam is led by a man called The Butcher. To ensure the liberation of Treviso, Caterina called upon as many members of the Antivan Crows as possible. House Dellamorte, House de Riva, House Cantori, and House Valisti, are now leading an underground fighting force against the Antaam, willing to use their skills to free Antiva.

So you see, we’re still including the freedom fighter angle because it certainly does make sense for the Crows to go against the Antaam. But we provided just a little bit of an additional explanation. Caterina wants the more idealistic and spirited members of the Crows to join the effort because this is something personal. And she needs those who care about a little more than coin and death to accomplish this. The remaining Crows are still out there, doing contracts, being cold and callous. But now, we give an in-universe reason for things to be the way they are presented to us.

Well then, now that we have created our de Riva, let us jump into the game!

The Treviso Chantry

Instead of using the Cantori Diamond, our Crow base is going to be something a little different. Let’s actually implement the lore and explore some history. The original Antivan Crows started out as monks in the area surrounding Treviso. In the years since, Treviso has been nearly destroyed on two occasions and a lot of rebuilding had to be done. So, instead of setting the main crow base in the HQ of one of their houses, we’re gonna set it in Treviso’s Chantry.

The idea is that Treviso’s Chantry is the ancestral base from which the Crows fully operated. But Treviso has been rebuilt so many times that people just forgot that. Well, not really forgotten, the place just looks utterly unrecognisable compared to its earliest incarnation.

Treviso’s Chantry is grand and beautiful now, think of places like Notre Dame. And just like Notre Dame, it has its secrets. In the years since the last restoration, the Crows took the Chantry and secretly kept expanding on it, using House Valisti as the main financial donor. The upper areas were entirely turned into a maze-like collection of rooms that can house a multitude of Crows at once. And the walls were given tons of secret passages and hidden doors. This is the main Crow base, and only fully initiated Crows know how to access it. It is also, most importantly, the one base where Crows are bound by their code not to harm each other. We know how much literal backstabbing these guys get up to, so we absolutely need to establish some kind of neutral ground. Still, ever since the incident in Tevinter Nights, where most Talons met a most gruesome end, there is tension in the air.

We arrive to the Treviso Chantry by rooftop, accompanied by our Talon, Viago de Riva, as well as all the de Riva Crows that were able to join this effort. Like shadows, we traverse the rooftops and ascend the Chantry’s walls like a group of Ezio Auditores. We find a secret passage in the walls and enter the Crows’ main base.

Right off the bat, Viago pulls us aside and tells us to be on our absolute best behaviour. Four of the Crows’ leading houses are gathered here, and we will not tarnish de Riva’s reputation by being ourselves. Classic Viago.

The Nest

The enormous attic areas of the Chantry are referred to as “The Nest”, for this is still where the first Crows “hatched”. And now, it’s used as a massive gathering place, including its own opera house-style auditorium. This Chantry is just the definition of extra but that’s what the Crows are about.

As we walk towards our gathering, we can have a few encounters:

The Great Contract

We settle down in the Nest’s auditorium and Caterina Dellamorte, the First Talon, steps on stage, and we immediately feel the sheer deadly power and authority oozing from her, despite, or maybe because of her age. She delivers a short and deadly speech on how the Antaam invaded Treviso, led by a man called Daathrata, or “The Butcher”, as the locals refer to him.

Caterina announces that all Crows gathered here have a contract now. All four houses have been bought to assassinate the Butcher and as many of his Antaam soldiers as possible. And if the Arishok dares to send someone else later, we'll go all the way to Seheron and assassinate him too. And who is the client with so much coin for this contract? Well, we’ll meet them later.

Caterina orders the Crows to rest up and prepare, they will be carrying out their plan soon enough. A few select Crows will be chosen to accompany their Talons and meet the client in another location.

Later that evening, Viago approaches us, declaring that he’s chosen us to accompany him to the meeting with the client. He’s incredibly grumpy and stiff about it and tells us to better not make him regret it. At the same time, he concedes that out of all the Crows of House de Riva, we have shown the most promise.

Meeting the Client

Heading to meet the client is, as with all Crow-related stuff, shadowy business. So we’re not going to take the streets but jump across the rooftops once again. While we do that, we can see a few things happening below:

Eventually, we arrive at our meeting spot: Café Pietra. There, we meet Rayan Ivenci, the Governor of Treviso, and a powerful Merchant Prince in their own right. Now, for Ivenci, I have something slightly different and more elaborate planned than what we see of them in the game.

Turns out, Ivenci is the one who proposed the contract and paid the Crows to assassinate the Butcher. Antivan nobles do have a well-established history of hiring the Crows to take out political targets, so this is no exception. Since Ivenci is a Merchant Prince, they had enough coin to hire all four houses currently active in Treviso.

If we’re feeling bold, we can even mention how superficial this contract is given that we’re planning to kill the Butcher anyway. Viago gives us another death glare and reminds us of the Crows’ ways of operating. A contract belongs in our very DNA.

Ivenci explains their plan to us: They’re going to try negotiating peace talks with Daathrata onboard his Dreadnought, which is docking just outside the Drowned District. And while they’re having these talks, the Crows can swoop in and perform their assassination. They mention that the Arishok likely sent Daathrata here rather than keep him in Tevinter is that, despite his cruelty, the Butcher doesn’t want to fight in a senseless war. And the Arishok knows when to use his generals in missions that are more attuned to their skillsets. Peace talks are, therefore, not outside the realm of possibility with him.

Our plan put in motion, Ivenci departs and the Crows prepare to gather all forces for a massive descent upon the Qunari.

An Old Friend

When Antonio, Caterina, and the Crows they brought along, leave, Viago and Teia remain. When we ask Viago why we’re not leaving, he says that we still have another meeting to attend. Another contract for after this one is over, so to speak.

At this moment, Varric Tethras joins us at the table, with a mug of mulled wine, as he needs that alcohol and coffee is just not his thing. Viago and Teia obviously know him from The Missing so that connection is established. Varric greets us and we probably know him very well, as pretty much everyone knows Varric thanks to his books. And being the Viscount of Kirkwall and serving the Inquisition years ago obviously added to his reputation.

Viago and Teia start talking to him about the contract they have been discussing for a while now. We, as players, obviously can already guess what it is, but the language is kept very vague right now. At this point, de Riva may begin to wonder why exactly we were allowed to stay with two Talons discussing a contract with a new client.

Turns out, Viago has proposed we join Varric and carry out the contract. Even though he has his absolute grievances with us and thinks we’re an annoying baby, he can’t deny our skills.

Varric looks us over and we can have our first little conversation with him, in which we express our interest and curiosity in this strange new contract. This first talk is going to determine partially how Varric perceives us. We can be strictly business-like, as a classic Crow like Viago would behave, or perhaps be a little more idealistic towards the Antaam situation, like Teia. In any case, the meeting ends with Varric stating he’ll wait for us after the Butcher contract is done. Viago barks at us to leave and so we do.

Preparations

Back at the Nest, we have a final strategic meeting with the four houses and determine exactly what everyone will be doing. Here’s the plan: House Valisti, since they have the most and longest experience with Daathrata by having fought him the longest, will go straight for the Butcher’s Dreadnought. House Dellamorte will handle the Antaam in the streets of Treviso. Houses Cantori and de Riva will take care of the Drowned District. Now, we have a first choice presented before us, as there are two different sections of the Drowned District we can focus on:

Whatever we choose is what Houses de Riva and Cantori will prioritise first. If there is still time, we shall focus on the second. While Teia is very much for liberating the prisoners, Viago wants to weaken the Antaam’s overall strength. And this is where our de Riva comes in.

Well, we have already established our de Riva to be a little more on the idealistic side, so we choose the Prison Camps as our battleground. Let me make one thing perfectly clear, though: we do not actually decide this in-universe. We are a regular Crow. Teia and Viago are Talons. Sure, they could ask us for our opinion, but we don’t get the end say. We just chime in with our own opinion and sway them to this decision. In this case, we support Teia’s idea and she convinces Viago to go along with it. Viago gives us a “this is so your fault” look, but lets it go.

The Crows Descend

What follows is a cinematic of Caterina sending us all to take up positions for what is to be a great shadow battle. The idea is to not engage in open warfare but more so in a Crow way, silent and deadly.

We get a scene at the Butcher’s Dreadnought. Governor Ivenci and some of their guards await to be let on. And this Dreadnought is massive, an absolute unit of a ship, easily overshadowing everything else in the docks. The gangplank is lowered and Daathrata, the Butcher, steps out. He’s an imposing, intimidating Qunari warrior who looks like he can snap anyone in two, including other Qunari. But when he opens his mouth, he is surprisingly well-mannered and soft-spoken, which kinda makes him look even more intimidating. He guides Ivenci and their guards on board. We see Antonio and the Valisti Crows hover on the rooftops surrounding the docks, ready to strike.

At the same time, in the streets of Treviso, we see Caterina and Illario getting the Dellamorte Crows ready to ambush groups of Antaam soldiers and clear the populated areas. Caterina pulls Ilario aside and tells him this is his moment to prove himself and lets him lead the house into battle. This visibly takes aback Ilario.

Lastly, Houses de Riva and Cantori gather on the rooftops surrounding the Prison Camps in the Drowned District. There are many guards around, and even more prisoners.

Now, we get to make another choice: How exactly do we approach this? Teia suggests killing the guards quickly and quietly and then let the prisoners out. Viago, on the other hand, wants to poison the guards and let them die from their food and drink. There are some nice campfires with pots of stew around. So, do we:

Well, we are still a de Riva and at this point we’ve pissed off Viago enough times. Let’s try and placate him again. We’re in the poison camp. Viago comments that finally, a shred of reason still exists in our head. Since we’re a Qunari ourselves, we now get a bit of a unique flavour to this mission: We know that the Qunari here are not just comprised of warriors. They still have Qunari cooks and craftsmen among them. As such, we can play a bit of dress-up: we’ll play the role of a Qunari cook and poison the food ourselves. This is where playing a Qunari really comes at an advantage for us because they won’t suspect us nearly as much as anyone else.

Viago gives us some Adder’s Kiss poison, provided by Emil, and asks us to bring back some qamek for him to study if we find any. He asks this in a bit of a nerdy way, like this is the one poison that still eludes his collection. The other Crows will hold back for the time being while we…go in alone. Mierda.

The Prison Camps

Cut to a little later. Instead of the tight, badass, and sexy Antivan Crow leather attire, we now find ourselves in a plain dress and shirt. We sneak into a tent filled with cooking supplies, and either knock out, kill, or convince the actual cook to go away. Either way, we are now the cook.

We look around in the tent and find ourselves absolutely aghast at the sheer lack of flavour and variety that is Qunari food. Antivans are supposed to be a mix of Spain and Italy, but the food aspect is definitely Italian-coded. So we look around horrified and mumble something along the lines of “Mierda, no wonder they are the way they are.”

We then set about brewing some fresh stew, which we are utterly disgusted by. As an Antivan, we are used to excellent food full of rich flavour and spices. We really have to reign ourselves in to not make the stew too tasty. This is absolute torture for our poor food-loving heart. This food deserves the poison.

Now that our food has become entirely disgraceful to our standards, it’s time to deliver it to the Antaam.

There are three prison camps aligned next to each other in total, meticulously placed upon the still-standing and dry parts of the Drowned District. We have to sneak the poison into three large pots, one for each camp. As we traverse the camp, we get the following encounters:

When we reach the main pots, something happens each time that will allow us to make some more choices:

Once all is done, we get a very Ghost of Tsushima-style scene where de Riva stands amidst the Antaam and watches the soldiers slowly succumbing to Viago’s poison, except for the third camp. And some others obviously see the poison take effect before eating anything. We quickly dash to where we left our gear. A few minutes later, the Crows descend upon the camps. We re-emerge, once again dressed in our Crow outfit. Viago and Teia join us, and Viago begrudgingly admits that yeah, we’ve actually done a satisfactory job, whereas Teia nudges him teasingly, saying that he can be proud every once in a while.

We then battle against the Antaam, with Viago, and Teia fighting by our side. We mow down those who survived the poison. And because we didn’t break the prisoners’ locks, none of them prematurely escape into an early grave.

Ambush

As soon as we start letting out the prisoners, however, something changes. Something drastic. We see a strange light out on the water and look to the Butcher’s Dreadnought, only to see it go…

BOOM

The Dreadnought fully explodes into smithereens and the debris even reaches us here. All of House Valisti was on board that ship, including Antonio, as well as Daathrata and Ivenci. Before we can react, however, we are suddenly ambushed by a whole new wave of Antaam soldiers. Somehow, the military camp made it here in seconds. And they begin cutting down the escaping prisoners. Mierda, maybe letting them run earlier would have been a better idea. Some would have died, yes, but not as many as right now.

We engage in another, much fiercer battle against the Antaam, but the Crows are driven back. We are not used to open warfare. Now the Qunari have the advantage. We retreat onto the walls.

From there, we see how the streets of Treviso are crawling with Qunari as well and two great Dreadnoughts sail down the river. Where did those come from? Did the Butcher suddenly gain forces? How? Why? How did he know? How…how did he know that we would be planning this? This is too calculated to be a coincidence. Viago and Teia come to the same conclusion: someone betrayed us, betrayed Treviso, betrayed us all to the Butcher. Speaking of…if the Butcher knew this, then the exploding Dreadnought was no accident either. That means he has to still be alive. Maybe we can even save Antonio.

But we also see the Dellamorte Crows struggling in the streets. Teia and Viago begin to argue on what to do next, and we can make a choice here, another big one:

Well, Viago taught us that a contract needs to be finished, no matter what. We speak out in favour of pursuing Daathrata. Viago agrees with us and Teia rallies House Cantori to help the Dellamortes in the streets. We pursue.

The Butcher

As we race along the docks and fight our way through Antaam soldiers, we are joined by Varric who asks if now’s a good time to make it an outside operation. Viago doesn’t even hesitate to let him join, and so we fight. There are so many Qunari, it’s actually insane. The Crows are way out of their depth here.

While the rest of House de Riva is fighting, we, Viago, and Varric reach the remains of the Butcher’s Dreadnought. We see the corpses of all the House Valisti Crows floating in the water or burning on the wreck. We also find Antonio, who is barely alive and severely wounded. We pull him out of the wreckage and begin patching him up.

We then explore the still-stable parts of the Dreadnought for any signs of the Butcher. Just as we’re about to give up, we see a smaller Qunari ship sailing along the docks. We see the Butcher and Ivenci on it. Well, gotta save the Governor.

Without waiting for Viago and Varric, we hurry over the burning debris, acrobatically swing ourselves back onto the docks, shoot along the piers, jump over gaps and missing parts, see another ship, a fishing vessel, sticking out far enough that we could maybe risk it, quickly make our way there, jump on the boat, climb the mast, the Qunari vessel is almost past us, unsheathe our daggers, SWING OURSELVES FROM THE MAST, DESCEND UPON THE BUTCHER, EZIO AUDITORE!!!

Whoom

We are suddenly stopped, mid-air, as Ivenci stops us with magic, blood magic even; freezing our blood so that our fall is halted. The Butcher calmly turns around and gazes us straight in the eyes. Then, he slowly unsheathes a dagger coated in qamek, and slowly, almost sadistically so, stabs us in the chest.

Ivenci lets their spell go and we drop on deck, our vision blurring, our thoughts dissolving as the qamek spreads through our body. Ivenci is the traitor. But…they made the contract…why would they…

Ivenci looks at us with pure hatred, something unexpected. Slowly, we fight back and rise to our feet. The Butcher sighs and engages us in battle.

What follows is a very blurry, very short boss battle that basically ends with the Butcher stabbing us again and sending us into the waters of Rialto Bay.

Awakening

We wake up back at the Nest with Viago nursing us back to health. Fortunately, the qamek on that dagger was but a small dosis, so we are certain to recover soon. It’s always good to start acquiring immunity. Viago knows what he’s talking about. As we look at him, we see, for the first time that he’s genuinely worried about us. And no condescension hides that.

He explains that Varric found us floating in the water and dragged us out. If it weren’t for him, we’d be dead. He awaits us at the café when we’re ready. Ready for what? Well, for the other contract. Are you fucking kidding us, Viago? Viago dismisses our incredulity by reminding us that contracts are what we’re all about. He asks us what happened with the Butcher. We come back to our senses and tell him that we need to tell something to the other Talons. Viago understands and allows us to get ready.

Slightly slow and wounded, bandaged, we make our way to the auditorium. Teia meets us on the way, glad to see us alive. We see that Viago and Teia are the only unscathed Talons. Caterina is heavily bandaged, as is Antonio. Illario is taking over House Dellamorte while Caterina recovers. Antonio is the only Valisti left. But at least, thanks to us, there is still a Valisti left.

We tell them that Ivenci betrayed us. That they’re a blood mage. That they and Daathrata work together. The Crows are furious, especially Antonio, who wants vengeance for his house. But they also commend de Riva for, albeit while not having finished the contract, at least getting this valuable intelligence.

After the meeting, Viago and Teia take us aside and prompt us to return to the café now. Ivenci and Daathrata think we’re dead and that the other Crows did not receive information on the betrayal. Let us keep it this way for now. Us disappearing out of Treviso on another contract with Varric is a perfect opportunity. We ask what this contract is about but they still won’t say, stating that it’s best for Varric to explain it himself.

Meeting Varric

We meet Varric back at the Café Pietra. He’s glad to see we’re alright and if we’re ready to depart. On our way here we saw that Treviso is currently in a bit of a turmoil. It’ll take a while before all of this is settled. And now, we have two main targets to kill here: Daathrata and Ivenci.

Yeah, the fact that Ivenci’s a traitor is a huge twist in DATV (at least it's meant to be), but I think there is an interesting story to be told if we know they’re the traitor from the get-go. Now, we can wonder why they did it. Playing an Antivan Crow will gain us that information way earlier than any other origin.

We ask Varric what this other contract is about, and he says he’ll tell us when we’re way out of Treviso. We can get a little impatient and ask what kind of target this could possibly be that it requires such secrecy. Are we hunting a god or something? Viago and Teia exchange some glances, but we don’t notice.

Instead, Varric encourages us to drop the de Riva name for now, as the Crows…do have a reputation. Best if we just come across as a normal Tal-Vashoth. We need a new name.

Varric suggests Rook. He saw us go straight for the Butcher, and had Ivenci not interfered, we would have succeeded. A Rook is one of the strongest pieces on the board. We chuckle and say: “Close enough to a Crow while still sounding different enough.” Viago visibly and audibly groans in the background, while Teia laughs.

Leaving Treviso

Before we leave Treviso, we can have some final words with Viago and Teia. We do get a little bit more insight into how both of them kinda raised us while still keeping us as a part of House de Riva. They are basically our parental figures, which is super rare among the Crows unless you are blood-related. Even though Viago demeans us all the time, it’s clear he has grown to somehow care for us. While Teia gives us a lot of advice for how to handle ourselves on the road away from all the Crows, Viago simply says something along the lines of “Get this contract done.” At this point, we exasperatedly ask “Mierda, WHO is the target???” and Varric leads us out of the café.

What follows is a cinematic of Rook and Varric sneaking through the streets of Treviso, dodging Antaam patrols. Once we’re out, we take a look back at the huge old Chantry. Still confused on what this is all about, we turn away and follow Varric into the unknown.

Prologue

Part 6 - The Mourn Watch

Riiiiight, the Mourn Watch. The Mourn Watch, the Mourn Watch…the Mourn Watch…yeeaahhhppp.

So, you see, when I started these rewrites, the two factions I dreaded the most were the Mourn Watch and the Lords of Fortune. And I’m gonna tell you why: Unlike the other four factions, these two don’t actually have any faction-specific stories. Sure, the Mourn Watch has the ghost bosses, and the Lords of Fortune has that one arena, but other than that? What exactly do these factions actually contribute to the story? They introduce Emmrich and Taash, respectively, sure. But that’s all they’re really here for.

While Veilguard definitely provided me with a lot of foundations to start working on the other factions’ origin stories, the Mourn Watch will require me to refer to Rook’s entry blurb alone and come up with something from there. There is no faction-specific villain to set up, no major contribution the Mourn Watch has to the overall story, nothing at all, really. On one hand, I dreaded it. On the other hand, I find myself strangely excited. Here, I can actually make something up from the ground while still trying to stay true to the spirit of the game.

Yeah, I could just take the Johanna Hezenkoss plot and make that the faction story as that’s the closest thing the game has, but nah. I’d like for that to still remain Emmrich’s companion story. I think, I might have something else in store for the Mourn Watch as a whole.

So, without further ado, here’s a potential origin story mission for the Mourn Watch.

Creating Rook

So, for the fifth time, we find ourselves back in the CC and click on the Mourn Watch tarot card. At this point, anyone watching this hypothetical walkthrough on Twitch or YouTube is probably screaming at the streamer to finally proceed with the actual story. But we gotta see all the potential backgrounds.

Right, so, we are met with the Mourn Watch faction background, and the little blurb says:

“You are a Mourn Watcher. This elite necromantic order explores the mysteries of life and death, and tends to the undead in Nevarra’s sprawling Grand Necropolis. As someone who has lived among the dead your entire life, the gloomy depths are nothing unusual for you. But when the dead begin acting out of place, even the safest corners of your home become treacherous and perilous. Will you uncover the truth behind the hauntings? Or does your path lead to an early grave?”

The last name, Ingellvar, applying to all four races, isn’t that big of a stretch in this one. Everything we need is already graciously provided by the game itself.

At some point in our infant life, we were found in a coffin somewhere in the Necropolis and adopted by necromancers. Well, in this rewrite, we’ll say that the necromancer who found us was a single man named Alberich Ingellvar. And the Necropolis has a bit of its own thing going about races, so that’s more of a secondary thing. And we're fortunate in that regard, since the necromancers mostly care about the dead and maintaining the Necropolis itself rather than who does it. The Necropolis mostly governs itself, especially since the Mage-Templar War. The more important backstory factor here is our class:

For our Mourn Watch playthrough, we shall be playing as a human mage lady named Elise Ingellvar.

Once we finalise her, we press on the start button, and Varric starts his narration.

In the opening narration of the Mourn Watch background, we get to hear the overall inciting situation: The Grand Necropolis, located just outside of Nevarra City, bordering the Silent Plains, is currently in a bit of a messy situation. Multiple undead strangely go rogue and attack their supervising necromancers, disturbing the overall flow of the facility. Their attacks have grown increasingly bold over the last few months. The necromancers are the last force preventing the undead from reaching the surface. And that’s exactly where Varric hopes to find someone he needs for his own endeavour.

So yeah, you see, the War of the Banners is something mentioned in Rook’s Mourn Watch backstory text in the actual game, but we don’t ever get any proper elaboration on it. I think that’s a perfect set-up for an engaging origin story mission. So let’s see how we do!

The Grand Necropolis

I have to give praise where it’s due: The Grand Necropolis looks amazing in-game. It has that perfect blend between sophistication, eeriness, and Tim Burton-esque weirdness. Hey, I never said I hated DATV! There are quite a few things to be praised about the game we got, and the overall presentation of the Grand Necropolis certainly is one of them.

What I would like to establish, however, is its proper location. Some say, it’s in the heart of Nevarra City, others position it somewhere on the outskirts. A few concept artworks from Matt Rhodes show it somewhere in the Silent Plains. So let us implement something and stick with it. In this rewrite, the Grand Necropolis lies just outside Nevarra City, right on the border to the Silent Plains. And that’s not an insignificant position lore-wise, for the Silent Plains are, of course, where Dumat was slain at the end of the First Blight. There are some…interesting implications to be had here, and I will delve into them when the time is right.

Meeting Myrna

We begin our game with Ingellvar entering the Necropolis Halls, where we are expected by Myrna. And right off the bat I’m going to make a small change to Myrna. Well, not really a change, more of an expansion. You see, we never actually get Myrna’s last name in any canon material, so for this rewrite, I’m going to call her Myrna Ingellvar. She is our adoptive sister. It was both a combination of our own efforts and her prestigious position that got us into the ranks of the Mourn Watch, which is, I might remind, the most elite necromancer group around. Obviously, in a non-mage origin, we’re an assistant to the Mourn Watchers, but since we’re playing a mage here, we’re a full-on member.

Myrna greets us and gives her congratulations on us finally making it down here, where all the action against the rising undead takes place. We quickly learn that she’s here to pick us up as we’re both invited to attend a lecture on the restless undead, delivered by none other than Professor Emmrich Volkarin. Not only that, since we’re playing a mage here, we get the added bonus of having been chosen as the professor’s new apprentice. Yeah, the Mourn Watcher background really gives us a lot of good things to start off with. We have…a lot to lose!

Myrna calls upon Audric Felhausen, the undead guardsman we met in Tevinter Nights, to accompany us to the Memorial Gardens, where Emmrich is set to deliver his lecture. We are just needed there a bit earlier since we’re kinda important for it.

Exploring the Necropolis Halls

Before we head to the Memorial Gardens, we have the opportunity to do a quick exploration segment in the Necropolis Halls. Not much is yet revealed here, but we can still have a few nice interactions:

The Professor

Once we’re done, we signal Myrna that it’s time for us to go. We then get a short but sweet cutscene showing the Ingellvars and Audric travelling through the silent halls and passages of the Necropolis, always on guard. But so far, nothing is attacking us. Hopefully it stays that way until we get to a larger gathering.

Thankfully, fortune is on our side this time around and we successfully arrive at the Memorial Gardens, where Emmrich Volkarin and his trusty assistant, Manfred the skeleton, already await us.

Emmrich bids us a very warm and polite welcome and greets us as his new personal apprentice in the arts of necromancy. As a first little task together, we are to light the candles of the Memorial Gardens, both to honour the spirits and to respect the dead.

As we go about this business, we can also find a letter addressed to Emmrich lying on a small nearby desk. It is from none other than Dorian Pavus, who used to be Emmrich’s student in younger years. It is both a pleasant and informative letter as we get a small hint at rising tensions within the Magisterium.

We can also have a short interaction with Manfred in which we first learn from Emmrich that he’s a spirit of Curiosity.

There is still some time before the lecture begins, so Emmrich invites us to a game of chess. It is quite a favourite pastime of his, and he likes to test our strategic thinking and patience.

The chessboard looks fittingly gothic and we begin our game without further ado. It is both a nice conversation with Emmrich as well as a perfect opportunity for us to roleplay Ingellvar’s personality traits. In the end, we succeed at the game by beating Emmrich’s Queen with, you guessed it, our Rook, check-mating the King in the process.

Emmrich congratulates us on a well-played game and definitely wants to play again, but later, for it is now time for the lecture.

And here is something I would like to change about the Mourn Watch as a whole. I would like Emmrich, Myrna, and all the other necromancers we may still meet, to speak in a German accent, simply to avoid Cassandra being the only one who talks like that, and it adds a nice regional touch.

Lecture on the Undead

As the Memorial Gardens fill with other Mourn Watchers, students, and a few outside visitors, we stand next to Emmrich in front of a huge brazier of green fire. Without further ado, Emmrich welcomes the gathered lot and begins.

Why exactly are we showing this, you may ask? Well, Emmrich is an esteemed professor and scholar, so I think it’s only fitting to show him actually being a professor. And Ingellvar as his apprentice gives us ample opportunity to roleplay our character as someone who is either still learning or very knowledgeable already.

In this playthrough, we have a desire to impress our teacher, so we take all chances we get to contribute to the lecture, something that greatly pleases Emmrich. We deliver a lecture on the nature of the undead, possessed corpses, spirits, the Veil, and how to best respect all. But we also inform the people of the current dangers in the Necropolis, that something is disturbing the spirits here, causing them to occasionally lash out and rebel.

As if on cue, the Memorial Gardens are suddenly swarmed with skeletal warriors, intent on slaying everyone they see. Well, Emmrich didn’t expect such a lively demonstration of what we just discussed.

Together with Emmrich and Myrna we fight against the undead, while Manfred and Audric are ordered to stay out of it given their own spiritual status. The fight isn’t particularly long or hard, but we are tested. In a particularly dicey moment, we are suddenly aided by the rapid firing of a crossbow, look to the side, and see none other than Varric Tethras!

An Old Friend

Once the last of the undead are dealt with, Varric introduces himself to us. Emmrich and Myrna are already aware of him, and so are we if we choose to be, given that Varric is very well-known in the world. He says that Sidony tipped him off on troubles in the Necropolis. Myrna knows this already as some correspondence was held a few days ago.

Varric compliments both our fighting and scholarly skills and offers his assistance in the matter at hand, which we all accept.

As we investigate the slain undead, we notice something quite odd: all the warriors bear the Pentaghast banner. Strange, indeed. Emmrich concludes that we must make our way deeper into the Necropolis posthaste to check up on the Royal Chambers. There seems to be something going on here that we aren’t yet quite aware of.

Given their spiritual existence, Manfred and Audric are told to stay here, as there can be no way of predicting the risks they would find themselves in otherwise.

Deeper into the Necropolis

With Myrna, Emmrich, and Varric, we descend into the deeper parts of the Necropolis, towards the Royal Chambers. This is where the Nevarran kings and queens of the past are all entombed, along with their family members, which, given that we’re talking about the Pentaghasts and Van Markhams, is quite the number.

When we reach the Royal Chambers, we are immediately swarmed by another undead horde, one that we are able to fight off with great difficulty. However, the oddities only increase, for these skeletons bear the Van Markham banner. What is going on here? Why are undead Pentaghasts and Van Markhams trying to attack the living? We knew something was going on, that some corpses began to rise against the living, but this is new.

We must delve further.

The Royal Chambers

When we reach the Royal Chambers, we find the doors unsealed, wide open. Before we enter, a dark figure seemingly materialises out of thin air and approaches us. This is Vorgoth, the oldest of the Mourn Watchers who isn’t a Lich. Nobody really knows who and what they are, but they are benevolent and helpful, so everyone just assumes they are some manner of manifested spirit, and leave it at that.

Vorgoth tells us that a great conflict has escalated between the undead, bidding us to follow him. When we do, we oversee a large clash between undead Pentaghast and Van Markham soldiers. Ultimately, it ends in a stalemate and the forces retreat to their respective wings. This is now absolutely baffling. Well, we all know that the Pentaghasts and Van Markhams are constantly vying for control of the Nevarran throne. But usually this only happens when they’re alive. Why would spirits possessing the dead suddenly wish to re-enact this fight in such a visceral manner?

Since we’re playing a mage, we get a bit of a unique scene now. We’ve been noticing it barely on the edge of our subconsciousness, but now it’s getting clearer: something about the Veil is…different here. We’ve been down here before, but now there is something else in the air…something colder.

We can’t really explain it and neither can the other mages in the party. Emmrich finds this whole situation both alarming and utterly fascinating, and we agree with him. Despite this being incredibly dangerous, we can’t help but feel intrigued. Something is going on down here.

Now we get to make a big choice that will impact the rest of this origin story. The decision is made to split the party. While Ingellvar, Emmrich, and Varric investigate one family mausoleum, Myrna and Vorgoth head for the other. We can choose to:

Well, since this particular player here wants to learn more about the Pentaghasts, that’s the choice we’re going with for this playthrough. Myrna and Vorgoth will investigate the Van Markham section. The plan is to meet back here once we’re done. We bid a temporary goodbye to Myrna and Vorgoth and the party splits.

The Pentaghast Mausoleum

Together with Emmrich and Varric, we head off into the Pentaghast Mausoleum and are immediately greeted by another batch of undead warriors we have to fight our way through. But in-between the fights, we get to experience some neat dives into Pentaghast lore, as well as some callbacks to DAI:

I think it’s important to have quiet moments during these exploration missions where you can just let the atmosphere take you on a journey into another world. This has the potential to be one such moment.

While passing through the Pentaghast Mausoleum and all the crypts and tombs in it, we feel this strange coldness that has been plaguing us for a while now. The deeper we get, the stronger it becomes. And we still have no idea what’s actually going on. Why are the Pentaghasts and Van Markham’s fighting each other?

When we venture a little deeper, we find dead Mourn Watchers who have been viciously slain. We suddenly get swarmed by the biggest horde of undead so far, way too numerous for us to fight off. Ingellvar and Emmrich try to use their magic to soothe the spirits possessing them, to no avail. One of the undead croaks that the King shall see us now.

An Audience with the King

We are taken to the deepest and most lavish part of the Pentaghast Mausoleum, the crypt of King Caspar the Magnificent. Now, Caspar is, of course, not only the first king of Nevarra but also the founder of the Pentaghast dynasty. The lore states that young Pentaghasts are traditionally brought into his crypt so that the spirit possessing his mummified body may speak to them.

His crypt was built in the style of a great and ancient throne room. The king himself sits upon the throne and “grants” us a very forceful audience. And Caspar looks just gaunt, like a creature straight from a Tim Burton movie. His throne room is drenched in green veilfire. He demands to know why the Mourn Watch keeps interfering in the War of the Banners, to which we reply that the dead should not be waging war at all. The dead must either rest or fulfill their duties to the Necropolis. But rising up against the living is neither of the two.

Caspar stands from his throne and approaches us. Throughout this whole scene, we can be either very respectful or feisty. But we’re playing Ingellvar as a very dedicated and honourable Mourn Watcher so we try to be respectful. As Caspar circles us, we see an opportunity to try and exorcise the spirit out of his body. It would be risky, but perhaps the undead would disperse then. Caspar’s spirit has surely been corrupted into a demon by now. So, do we:

In this instance, we try to do the right thing, so we perform a Mourn Watch ritual to banish the spirit possessing Caspar’s body. This leads to a horrifying discovery: Caspar is not possessed by a spirit. He’s not even possessed by a demon! He’s not controlled by another’s magic, either. Caspar is...something else. He’s no Lich, that much is clear, but he’s no longer the spirit that usually resides within the corpse either. So what is it?

Enraged, Caspar attempts to have us executed, only to be interrupted by something. As a mage, we are able to pick up on the cold air suddenly turning utterly freezing, and a voice calls through the emptiness, a dark voice, hollow and deep, as though coming from an abyss. It orders Caspar to bring the prisoners down to the Altar Chamber. Here’s where we get some lore: The Altar Chamber is the last room that separates the rest of the Necropolis from the domain of the Lich Lords. It is the place where newly chosen Liches are given their immortality.

The undead, led by King Caspar, take us away.

The Altar Chamber

We are taken down the deepest, most ancient stairs of the Necropolis, before meeting at the doors to the Altar Chamber. But we are not alone. Myrna and Vorgoth are also here, flanked by Van Markham soldiers, led by King Tylus Van Markham, the first of the Van Markhams to ever assume the throne of Nevarra. Tylus and Caspar at first are furious upon seeing each other, but the cold voice has commanded them both to bring the prisoners to the Altar Chamber.

Now that things can’t possibly get any stranger, we enter through the door.

The Lich Lord

In the great Altar Chamber, we encounter a tall, looming figure, with green flaming eyes, clad all in black. As Mourn Watchers, we recognise the figure immediately: a Lich Lord. Now things are even more confusing. The Lich Lords are supposed to protect the Necropolis from such undead uprisings. And yet here we are.

The Lich welcomes us, Myrna and us specifically. He then performs a glamour spell and assumes the form we find most familiar: before us stands our father, Alberich Ingellvar.

Alberich states that he sees clearer than the other Lich Lords and wishes to finally open the First Gate. Here’s where Emmrich perks up and we get some more lore: The First Gate lies at the heart of the Lich Lords’ domain. It existed before the rest of the Necropolis, and nobody aside from the Lich Lords knows what’s behind it. All we know is that protecting that gate is their main duty above all else. And Alberich seeks to open it.

He brought us here to grant us lichdom as he wants his children by his side. Here’s where we get a first hint of Emmrich’s own desire to be among the Lich Lords should he ever prove himself worthy. But this is wrong, one must earn their place in immortality through a life of dedicated and selfless servitude.

We can ask Alberich about the War of the Banners. He states it as a rather beneficial side effect of his rituals at the First Gate but doesn’t elaborate any further, we still need to keep some mystery alive for later.

As we study the undead around us, especially the two kings, we notice that they are reluctant to be here. So they aren’t possessed or controlled but somehow they both feel obliged to obey Alberich? Why?

Myrna betrays a hint of distress upon seeing her father abuse his powers like that. Vorgoth condemns his actions, calling him unworthy of lichdom. This seems to be the first case the honour was granted to one undeserving.

Paying them no heed, Alberich compels the Ingellvar siblings to step forward and receive lichdom. We can either:

We choose the second option and refuse. Myrna agrees with us wholeheartedly. Alberich orders Tylus and Caspar to bring Myrna and us to him. The grip of the mummified corpses is as steel.

But just as we are about to be presented to Alberich, who reverts back to his Lich Lord form, Vorgoth unleashes their whole power. They send forth a burst of magic so strong that it just banishes the spirits out of all the possessed undead soldiers, sending them to the ground. Caspar and Tylus, since they’re not possessed, are knocked back against the wall, hissing and cursing. Alberich resists with some difficulty but ends up knocking Vorgoth out of the Altar Chamber.

He regards us with disappointment and declares that if we won’t join him in immortality willingly, he will bring us over himself. As Emmrich and Varric attempt to join us, they are attacked by Caspar and Tylus and engage in a fight with them.

Myrna and us are thrown into a boss battle against Alberich, in which he unleashes terrifying Lich powers upon us. This is, again, one of those fights we are probably meant to lose and come back to stronger at a later stage in the story.

As Alberich attempts to stab Myrna with the ritual dagger that would initiate the lichdom process, we jump right between the two and engage Alberich one-on-one. Alberich stabs us squarely in the chest and throws us to the ground. As he attempts to go through with the ritual, the dagger is shot out of his hand by Varric, followed by a crossbow bolt to the head, distracting him momentarily.

Varric and Emmrich, having gotten past Caspar and Tylus, rush to our side and, together with Myrna, drag us out. Alberich and the two kings attempt to pursue us, but Vorgoth returns and casts another blast against them. Then, all goes black.

Healing and Leaving

We awaken in a bed, our chest bandaged up. Myrna sits next to us and is overjoyed to see us finally showing signs of life again, a rare display of emotion for her. She tells us what happened: We escaped just at the last possible second, by the skin of our teeth. After a while, Caspar and Tylus broke off the chase and returned to their respective crypts, while Alberich remained in the Lich Lords’ domain. Nobody is ever the wiser about what is actually going on.

We feel a strange cold in our hearts and Myrna explains that it’s the after-effects of the ritual dagger. It will only improve if we leave the Necropolis for a while and get as far away from Alberich as possible. Confused, we ask where we should go. The Necropolis is our home. Myrna tells us that we should speak to Varric about that. He might just have an idea.

We leave our room and find Varric not far away. When asked about what this strange idea of a trip might be, Varric explains that he came to the Necropolis in search of someone who would accompany him on a most daring and perilous adventure. We don’t know if we should frown or laugh given that we just escaped a most daring and perilous adventure and were instructed to leave in order to heal from it. But what is it and where are we going? Varric can’t tell us just yet. We’ll just need to wait and see. Great.

Before we depart, we, of course, have the chance to talk to our Mourn Watcher friends one last time:

When we return to Varric, he recommends us that we change our name. If Lich Lord Ingellvar gets any ideas to come to the surface, we may not wish to be associated with him, given the clearly malicious intentions. We can’t really think of anything at first, but one last look at Emmrich reminds us of our chess game earlier, so we hesitantly say: “Rook.” Varric compliments us and says he would have chosen the same, as we went straight for our goal and would have nearly stopped the War of the Banners, had it not been for Alberich.

Following Varric, we pass through the corridors of the Grand Necropolis, approaching the surface. Now called Rook, we look back one last time, before following our new acquaintance into the unknown.

Prologue

Part 7 - The Lords of Fortune

So, the Lords of Fortune are probably the faction I was looking forward to least when it comes to this rewrite. Oh make no mistake, I do like the Lords of Fortune as a concept, as a faction, who doesn’t like a group consisting of what is essentially a bunch of Jack Sparrows and Nathan Drakes? My issue is with how they are depicted in the game. And with that I mean, like…pretty much not at all. Aside from the Hall of Valor and the fact that Taash belongs in that group, there isn’t really that much happening with them.

So, just like with the Mourn Watch, it is our task…or rather mine, to change that with this rewrite.

What do we think of when we picture the Lords of Fortune? I can tell you what I thought before Veilguard: pure adventurers. When I think of what the Lords of Fortune are up to, I picture scenes from Indiana Jones or Pirates of the Caribbean. This is the least bleak of the six available factions. Which isn’t to say it completely lacks bleakness, but it is less so than the others. I see swashbuckling action adventures aboard pirate ships, in flooded caves, in ancient ruins, that’s what the Lords of Fortune are. Their motto is “For Gold and Glory”, and I believe they should reflect that. Besides, with all the darkness surrounding the other factions, we need a few perspectives that bring some more fun into the fray.

So, without further ado, let’s tackle a potential origin story for the Lords of Fortune. And I’m going to say one thing in advance: that’s the faction I’m going to inflict the most changes on.

Creating Rook

For the sixth and final time, we return to the CC and pick the final faction, the Lords of Fortune. We get this little intro blurb:

“You are a Lord of Fortune. An informal collection of explorers, hunters, and treasure-seekers from Rivain, the rowdy Lords are famed for both daring exploits and narrow escapes. Having been raised among ships and ruins, the untethered life has been yours for as far as you can think back, “For Gold and Glory” are not just words to you, but the very creed of your life. So when a great treasure hunt is called upon by your leaders, you are among the first to volunteer. This could be your chance to coat your name in everlasting glory. Should you succeed, of course.”

In the original Veilguard, Rook’s last name is Laidir. Once more, we’ll have to come up with an explanation for why that may be so, given that we can choose to play any of the four races. So let’s get a little spicy again.

It’s mentioned in DATV that Rook was a slave on a Tevinter galley, and I think that’s actually a pretty solid start to the backstory we can develop here. So, in this rewrite, Laidir was a teenager on said galley. Not remembering their real parents, they were rescued by the Felicisima Armada, Isabela specifically.

Before we proceed, let’s establish some race-unique circumstances of why Laidir was on that galley:

Isabela brought them to Llomerryn, where they were raised by a Rivaini Seer in league with the Lords of Fortune. The name of the Seer? Laidir. Yeah, we’re going with the adopted angle once more but it does make sense. And having our adopted parent be a Seer will immediately put us close to Rivaini culture, which is something truly in need of further expansion. And here are some class-specific background details we can go with:

Now what does this initial backstory instantly give us? The desire to be free and unbound by any nation’s laws was already there since the beginning. If we started off as a slave/prisoner, the Lords of Fortune and, by extension, Rivain, provide us with the freedom we never knew before.

So, for this playthrough, we choose a non-binary elven rogue called Maya Laidir.

Now that we have finalised our Laidir, we press the start button and get to enjoy the last of Varric’s unique faction-specific intro narrations.

In the Lords of Fortune opening, Varric comments on how the waters around Rivain and beyond are growing increasingly restless. Raider attacks increase, more and more fleets of the Felicisima Armada go rogue and turn against their comrades, and the Antaam, even though mostly focused on Tevinter and Antiva, pushes against the mainland. In addition, the Seers speak of chaos in the Fade as the spirits become more and more frantic. Something is happening beyond the Veil. And in the midst of all this, the Lords of Fortune thrive and lend their skills. Monster hunters, treasure-seekers, explorers, for gold and glory, you can get them to do pretty much anything remotely adventurous. Just like the Armada, with whom they share close ties, they are an informal organisation that can, in times of need, effectively unite. Such as now, actually: The Lords of Fortune were called to assemble in Llomerryn, the ancient stronghold of the Felicisima Armada, for a task of great promise. The most skilled treasure hunters in all of Thedas, that’s exactly where Varric hopes to find someone for a “hunt” of his own.

And with all that established, let’s get right into the game!

Llomerryn

So, right off the bat we shall make a bit of a drastic change to the way the Lords of Fortune are depicted in our version of Veilguard. We shall give them an actual, proper base. The Hall of Valor is a neat place, but it has more of a mini-game feel to it than an actual HQ. Think of the Grand Necropolis, that's a place I could call a base. And in this rewrite, we gave the other factions clearly defined strongholds as well. And what better place for the Lords of Fortune than the politically neutral port-city of Llomerryn?

So a little bit of background lore: Llomerryn is the city the Felicisima Armada calls their home, their main port so to say. Think of Tortuga or Shipwreck Island from Pirates of the Caribbean, only on a much larger scale. That’s pretty much what we’re going with here. But way before that, it was also the place where peace was made with the Qunari at the end of the new Exalted Marches. The Llomerryn Accords stem from here. It is a pretty significant place in Thedas’ history, and now it serves as a hub for all the scum and villainy of the Waking Sea.

Now, why is the main place of the Felicisima Armada also a gathering place for the Lords of Fortune? Well, as lore states, the Lords of Fortune have very direct ties to the Raiders of the Waking Sea, often aiding each other in their exploits. It would, therefore, stand to reason that they would also be able to share gathering hubs.

Meeting Bharv

We get a small intro cutscene in which Laidir arrives on Llomerrynn aboard a small vessel from Dairsmuid. Our first order of business is to meet with Bharv, one of the more senior Lords of Fortune still kicking, which is why he was chosen as one of the leading figures for this whole assembly.

Okay, I can practically hear some of you asking the following two questions: Who is Bharv? And where is Isabela? Allow me to explain.

Bharv is a dwarf and appears in Tevinter Nights as one of the POV characters, more specifically in the story Herold had a Plan. It ended with him meeting Vaea to deliver a healing amulet to ease the pain and suffering brought on by the war between Tevinter and the Antaam.

I don’t necessarily think the Lords of Fortune should have a singular leader. It all depends on the circumstances. And since Bharv is one of the most experienced ones around, it kinda just fell to him.

And where is Isabela? Shouldn’t she be leading the Lords of Fortune as depicted in DATV? Well…no.

Something I want to establish right off the bat is that Isabela is not the leader of the Lords of Fortune in this rewrite, for a couple of reasons. First of all, I just can’t see her in this position without significantly changing her character. The Isabela we meet in Veilguard is just so drastically different to the one we knew from before that it might as well have been an entirely new character. True, part of that is because there is no World State in that game, but she also feels like a placeholder, you know? Like BioWare had a different plan for her but didn’t want to discard the already-finished model when said plan changed. Which…is actually kind of the case if we look at the original concepts. My second reason is…I just need Isabela for something else in this rewrite, something more befitting her character, but we’ll get to that later.

So, instead, we’ll have Bharv and someone else acting as the momentary leaders for the Lords of Fortune.

Once we arrive in Llomerynn, we immediately meet Bharv on the docks and get the whole gist of the situation: So basically, the Lords of Fortune have been called to participate in a series of daring expeditions across Rivain and the Waking Sea, with support from the Felicisima Armada. With the increasing Antaam raids, led in Rivain by a lovely chap called the Dragon King, the restless spirits, and all the other serious shit happening across Northern Thedas, it’s thought best to retrieve a bunch of ancient artefacts and sell them to the highest bidder in order to better equip both the Armada and the Lords for the surely troubling times to come. And as it so happens, we have been selected for a particularly daring exploit, but more on that later. First, we need to go to the Golden Deck and meet Hollix, our second leading figure.

In our first dialogue instance as Laidir, we can now express our feelings towards this whole affair. In our case, we long for a bit of daring adventure as our last few hunts were rather dull.

Exploring the Docks

While we look for Hollix, we get a brief window of opportunity to explore the docks of Llomerryn. And they are pretty gigantic. We see several ships from all across the world taking a brief respite here, fully taking in the absolute might of the Felicisima Armada. As we’re walking here, we can spot some interesting things and overhear a bit of sailor gossip:

Meeting Hollix

So, before we continue, let’s talk about Hollix for a moment, and why I chose them as the second leading figure for the Lords of Fortune. “Hollix” is an alias this individual took for themselves in Tevinter Nights when they were employed by Dorian Pavus to hunt down a monster in Minrathous. For the ease of this game, we shall say that they just ran with “Hollix” after that memorable adventure. They are a master of disguise and an incredibly skilled combatant, especially against monsters. It would make sense to have them as our second person in charge next to Bharv.

Now, what is the Golden Deck? Well, since Llomerryn is largely the Armada’s place, we need a location the Lords of Fortune can call their own. Let’s have some fun here: The Golden Deck is comprised of a bunch of shipwrecks, repurposed into a single large tower-like building. It stands on a small isle next to Llomerryn’s docks. From the outside, it looks a bit ramshackle, quite obviously improvised and thrown together from multiple things. But once you’re inside, oh that’s a different story entirely. The floors and pews are covered in gold and expensive carpets, various treasures and trophies are on display in every room you enter. There is a large tavern-like mess hall on the ground floor where delicious foods are being served, and a large open swimming area. Huh, basically, I’m describing a Monster Hunter hub to you right now. But yeah, that’s pretty much on point. We won’t have talking felyne cooks though.

Hollix is currently in the process of regaling the assembled Lords of Fortune with the very tale they got their name from, until Bharv interrupts and tells them to come up with something new. Hollix excuses themselves and vaults over to where we stand and makes a very dramatic introduction.

A few minutes later, we’re sitting at a table, eating some seafood and discussing the exploit for which Laidir was chosen. So basically we have to explore an island somewhere off the north-eastern coast of Rivain, which was, until recently, a Qunari base, until a dragon forced them away and made it her breeding ground. Nobody knows the island’s name, only that it contains strange ruins, amidst which the dragon made her nest. We must scour the ruins for anything the Antaam left behind, or maybe didn’t even notice.

As with all current expeditions, the Lords of Fortune are supported by a ship of the Armada. And this endeavour is no exception. In our case, we shall be boarding the Siren’s Call II, captained by none other than Isabela, a person both Laidir and the player are very familiar with.

So, as I mentioned earlier, Isabela is not the leader of the Lords of Fortune in this rewrite, but she is one of the Armada captains closely associated with them. I just can’t see Isabela ditching her Admiral status and her fleet to hang out in the Hall of Valor all the time. She could be doing both at the same time, but yeah…I think it’s best if she stays a captain and we get to enjoy her in all her Isabela glory.

We are also to be accompanied by Taash, the Dragon Slayer, who is already on the island, getting a good measure for the dragons. We are, as Laidir, familiar with Taash and their childhood in the Qun, having been on some exploits together.

Once all is set and done, we are free to enjoy the rest of the evening before setting sail tomorrow.

The Golden Deck

We can, of course, simply go to sleep and skip forward to the next day in order to progress with the main quest. But being the explorers and completionists we are, we take this chance to explore the Golden Deck and talk to some pretty interesting people:

Once all points of interest are dealt with, we head off to bed and skip forward to the next day.

The Siren’s Call II

Next morning, a ship docks right next to the Golden Deck. A magnificent vessel of tremendous power, the Siren’s Call II. From it steps Isabela, Admiral of the Felicisima Armada.

I get what BioWare might have been going with in Veilguard, but in this rewrite, Isabela is actually wearing clothes. The concept art shows her with a badass coat and tricorn, and that’s the look I think would best suit her in her new position of power.

Isabela recognises us and remembers the day she freed us from the slave ship. We can exchange some words. Our Laidir is pleased to see her. Although the two never meet for long occasions, the meetings are always memorable. Given this, we’re very much looking forward to sailing to Dragon Island, as it is currently dubbed for the lack of an official name.

After gathering our things, we readily board the ship and the Siren’s Call II sets sail away from Llomerryn.

An Old Friend

As the ship sails on, Isabela introduces us to an old friend of hers. And out of a cabin steps, of course, Varric Tethras.

As someone familiar with Isabela and her story, Varric’s name isn’t unknown to us, and we can instantly express our opinions on his time with Hawke and later the Inquisitor.

Varric and Isabela pull us aside and confide that the famous dwarf is planning on potentially recruiting us for an exploit of his own, much more daring than anything we have ever done. We are rather intrigued by this, but details shall only be shared once the Dragon Island mission has been completed.

We can ask Varric and Isabela either about their adventures with Hawke or the Inquisition and get some nice background flavour, especially if Isabela romanced Hawke.

Arrival on Dragon Island

After spending several days on the Siren’s Call II, the ship finally approaches the murky, misty place simply dubbed “Dragon Island”. As we approach the coast, we can already make out ruins of a Qunari base, alongside some dreadnought wrecks. Looks like those were the last vestiges that couldn’t escape the dragon attack.

When we dock, we are immediately approached by our companion for the remainder of this mission: Taash!

Meeting Taash

Okay, so before we continue, I would like to go on a tangent and explain a small but significant change I am giving Taash in this rewrite: Taash is going to identify as non-binary from the beginning. I have a few reasons for this. Hear me out:

So, all in all, I love Taash as a concept, but I don’t think Veilguard managed to do justice to all their potential.

With all that being said, in this rewrite, Taash’s starting situation is that they already know they’re non-binary, at least they’re starting to accept the idea of it, but they refuse to tell their mother and ask the other Lords of Fortune to refer to them as a woman whenever they speak with Shathann. They are not ready for that final step yet, and that’s what we shall be handling later in the game, as well as the fact they’re both Rivaini and Qunari, and a badass dragon slayer and treasure hunter and adaari to boot.

So, we meet Taash and greet each other like two well-known acquaintances, since we’ve been on a few exploits together in the past.

While we were making our way here on the Siren’s Call II, Taash has been exploring the island and found that there’s not one but two high dragon nests, which is…very uncommon since those things are territorial. One is a Northern Hunter, the other a Vinsomer, both electricity-breathing dragons that are known to cause absolute storms on their own. Isabela quickly instructs her crew to prepare dragon-slaying ballistae, just in case.

Before we go, Varric asks to accompany us on our little treasure hunt, so we get our second companion for the prologue. Isabela stays with her ships and awaits our return.

Exploring the Coast

Before we delve deeper into the island, we can explore the coast a little and come across the following things:

We also get to fight a bunch of large crabs that make themselves at home amidst the ruins and the sand.

Unfortunately for us and our gold-seeking hearts, we find nothing of real value. Perhaps further inland, how about that?

Delving Deeper into Dragon Island

Together with Taash and Varric, we continue our little journey through Dragon Island, its centre being a dormant volcano. On our way there, we see the hastily assembled Qunari structures gradually fading away, replaced by a lush jungle and rocky terrain. We’re really getting into the adventurer aspect of things now.

Occasionally, we get to fight some more giant crabs and a few large lizards that haven’t been hunted by the dragons yet. On our journey, Taash tells us that the Northern Hunter resides on a set of jagged rocks on the other side of the mountain, while the Vinsomer lives right in the crater and is therefore likely the more dominant of the two. They haven’t explored their lairs yet because they very much could use back-up for that. Mostly as bait. They are more than capable of fighting a dragon on their own.

Varric remarks that a simple treasure-hunting mission is something he could have seen himself doing before all that Kirkwall business happened and he was just mercilessly thrown into this seemingly never-ending epic. Taash states that this could still end up being epic if they somehow attract the attention of both dragons.

The Gate

Eventually, we reach the foot of the mountain, which is the furthest Taash ventured into the island before waiting for assistance to arrive. At this moment we might be wondering if there’s even anything of interest here, to which Taash replies yes, there is.

They lead us further upwards and show us a large ancient-looking gateway right into the mountain, along with some stone steps. The gate looks dwarven. But here? So far up the surface? Is this an entrance to the Deep Roads?

The Still Mistress

Just as we are about to enter the mountain, we see something from the corner of our eye. On a nearby coast, not the one Isabela is docking at, a ship sets anchor. It has blood-red sails and a pitch-black hull. Taash and Laidir recognise it for what it is: This is the Still Mistress, the flagship of Ianto the Talon.

So, let’s talk about Ianto for a bit. He is actually a canon character but only appears in codex entries and off-screen mentions. He is known as “The Terror of Llomerryn” or “That Crooked Bastard What Might Kill You in Your Sleep”. There’s a guy called Martin in DA2, who survived having his throat slit by him. He’s a known slaver and murderer and has an evil reputation even among the Felicisima Armada.

If we tie the Lords of Fortune to the Raiders of the Waking Sea, I think it would make sense that the overall villain of this faction’s story has some connection to it all as well. And who better to pick than someone who’s already known in-universe but still vague enough that we can build him as we see fit?

BioWare made it no secret that a big inspiration for Dragon Age as a whole was the A Song of Ice and Fire series. And…yeah, you can definitely see that. So why not make Dragon Age’s own version of Euron Greyjoy? He’s pretty much exactly what I pictured when reading those entries about Ianto. And since Laidir was a child slave/prisoner, it provides a few added layers to give them a villain who’s known to be a slaver.

Yeah, I could have just made the Dragon King the main villain for the Lords of Fortune, but he’s far more appropriate as Taash’s nemesis, so we’ll leave him there.

We get a short cutscene of Ianto and his crew setting foot on Dragon Island. He’s a tall dude with black-grey hair and an equally menacing beard, has a bit of a Blackbeard-like aesthetic actually. He’s followed by his first mate, a Seer called Reyna. She is known amongst the Seers as someone who has strayed from the path a few years ago, and is now using her skill for ill purposes.

Neither Laidir nor Taash like this turn of events since both know what an absolute dickhead Ianto is. But what’s more worrying: What is he doing here? And why did he just conveniently show up pretty much as soon as we did? Now we’re even more eager to delve into that volcano. If Ianto is here, then there’s definitely something worth getting. Now comes the question…should we warn Isabela about this? I mean, she’d definitely want to know that such bold competition has arrived. Varric offers to backtrack, so now we have a small choice to make:

Since we’re better safe than sorry, we tell Varric to go and warn Isabela since we all need to be on the same page. Besides, it’s good to have our ship alerted in case of unfortunate combat, as Ianto is known for sabotaging raider ships as well if it means that he gets more bounty for himself.

Varric hurries back to the beach, while Taash and Laidir enter the mountain.

Inside the Volcano

With Varric gone, Taash and Laidir set about exploring the insides of the great volcano. Pretty much immediately, we find that the way up has collapsed. Probably for the better since the Vinsomer lives upstairs and we can’t be asked to deal with both Ianto and two angry high dragons. Perhaps we could hope that the two parties attack each other. As a sort of confirmation of presence, we hear a loud roar from somewhere above.

Our only current way is down, further into the depths of the earth. And as we progress, we come across a few things:

After a while, we hear scratching and growling ahead of us, and are immediately assaulted by a bunch of strange ghoul-like creatures, who come at us with monstrous claws and even wings in some cases.

We fight them off but are close to being overwhelmed. In that moment, Taash unleashes their fire breath and absolutely annihilates the creatures. We are properly gobsmacked by this because…what the fuck, since when can Taash do that? Since when can anyone do that?

Taash explains that it’s something they can do since birth and that the hows and whys are a story for another time. They just ask us to please not tell anyone. As the good companion that we are, we promise to do just that.

As we investigate the charred corpses, we slowly make the horrifying deduction that these were once the prisoners who got away from the Antaam and hid away on the island. Something…transformed them into monsters.

We descend a little further and come across a few more of those ghoul-like creatures. The further we get down, the more outright creepy the place becomes.

The Magma Chamber

Eventually, we enter the volcano’s magma chamber, where we defeat a few more of the transformed prisoners. Once the battle is done, we see something truly fascinating: the magma itself doesn’t seem to be free-flowing as you would see in a typical volcano. It seems to be concentrated in some kind of whirlpool-like well. Above the magma, on the cavernous ceiling, we see a great stalactite. But it's not just any stalactite. It’s a stalactite made of multi-coloured lyrium. Behind it, rising from the magma, stands a gigantic obsidian statue of the elven woman we saw in the mural earlier, her arms spread out.

Those who have read Tevinter Nights may have already guessed what we’re dealing with here. This is one of Ghilan’nain’s monster-making laboratories, of which there are still eleven spread out across Thedas. There were originally twelve, but one was destroyed by Warden Lesha.

But of course, neither Laidir nor Taash know what this is, so all we can do is have a genuine WTF reaction. Once that’s done, we investigate the chamber. We express utter awe and intimidation upon seeing the great crystal. But both of us come to the conclusion that this treasure is evil, if what it did to the escaped prisoners is any kind of hint. So we set about destroying it. This is no choice to be made, we all just want that thing gone.

Ianto

As we begin to come up with a plan on how to destroy the lab, Ianto, Reyna, and their crew arrive, clearly outnumbering us. Reyna points at the crystal and tells Ianto that yes, this is what they came for. Ianto muses that someone’s come ahead of him, and looks at us with a smile. He recognises us as Laidir and Taash, for we are both well-known amongst the Lords of Fortune. We would fetch some excellent prices in Minrathous.

At this point, we have another small choice, and it’s pretty straightforward:

Against all odds, despite not having Varric with us, Laidir and Taash decide to fight because we’re absolutely not going back into slavery. Ianto likes our spirit and sends his crew against us.

We have a brief fight with Ianto’s crew, and even if we manage to win against the goons, Ianto and Reyna just one-shot us into unconsciousness. As we fall to the ground, Reyna activates a hidden mechanism. Ghilan’nain’s statue clasps the crystal with her great obsidian hands and begins to lower it. All goes black.

Bound Aboard

We awaken on the beach, right next to the Still Mistress. Both Laidir and Taash are tied up in chains, and here we get a little rp opportunity. We, upon seeing our predicament, can have a panic attack because we’re about to be shipped off to Tevinter, right back where we came from all those years ago. Taash calms us down and promises that nobody’s going anywhere but home.

We watch as Ianto has his crew bring out the lyrium crystal on a huge cart, ready to be shipped off to spirits know where. It’s pulsating with ancient, corrupting magic. Reyna in particular seems greatly attuned to it, as she speaks of how absolutely restless and chaotic the Veil is around that thing. Even the boldest of spirits shun the crystal.

Taash snaps us out of focusing on the crystal and has an idea. They point towards the great dragon-slaying ballistae aboard the Still Mistress and points out that we could potentially lure one or both of the dragons here, giving us ample opportunity to escape. They point to the jagged rocks where we can briefly see the shape of the Northern Hunter spreading out her wings, as well as to the crater, where we know the Vinsomer abides.

Or we could wait for Isabela to arrive, since Varric probably told her of Ianto’s arrival by now. Because of our choice earlier, we now have the luxury to decide our imminent progression here:

Since we are currently in a bit of a panic mode about our predicament, we will do all we can to escape slavery. Dragons it is. Taash seems very excited at the prospect.

It is evident that Ianto’s crew did a sloppy job of chaining us up as they were probably all prioritising the lyrium crystal.

We have a cutscene in which Ianto orders us brought aboard alongside the crystal. Once we board the Still Mistress, Taash uses their strength to break our chains and engages in a brawl with the pirates, while we quickly stumble to the closest ballista, preying it’s loaded, which it is.

We quickly aim for the jagged rocks and shoot this massive harpoon-like bolt across the island. From somewhere in the distance, we hear a deafening, enraged roar. Right, first dragon has been successfully angered. Now about the Vinsomer.

But before we can run to another ballista, we are paralysed with pain from the beating we took earlier and let out an anguished cry. Because we decided to fight the pirates earlier, we didn’t have enough stamina to attract the second dragon.

We are dragged to the ground by Ianto’s crew and are about to be assaulted with various blades when a great shadow momentarily covers the sky. We look up and see the enraged Northern Hunter launching towards us, surrounded by lightning.

The pirates curse and immediately forget about us. Ianto orders the beast slain and the crystal protected at all costs. The dragon unleashes a torrent of lightning across the beach, killing a bunch of pirates in an instant.

Taash roughly picks us up and jumps from the ship, helping us stand once we’re on the sand, marvelling at the power of the great beast.

Just in that moment, the Siren’s Call II appears in the small bay, and Ianto grins. Somehow, the increasing chaos makes him all the more bloodthirsty.

The ship docks and both Isabela and Varric lead a bunch of raiders across the beach, while the dragon engages in battle with Reyna, who uses spirit and blood magic to keep her at bay.

Battle on the Beach

Isabela and Varric join us as we’re attacked by more raiders. We tell them of the crystal and how it must not leave this island. They both immediately understand for they have seen first-hand what corrupted lyrium can do to its surroundings.

We make our way to the crystal, fighting off Ianto’s pirates while occasionally dodging the dragon’s lightning bursts.

In one such moment, the dragon fires right into our midst, separating us in the chaos. Since we have the unfortunate privilege of being the protagonist of this game, we find ourselves blasted closest to the crystal, so it now falls to us to destroy it.

But before we can do so, Ianto himself intercepts us. Despite the carnage unfolding, he seems to be relishing in the chance to have a good fight. And with that, our boss battle with the Terror of Llomerryn begins.

We are in a rough shape but still manage to somehow stand our ground against the formidable pirate captain, who unleashes his sword, daggers, and grenades on us.

This boss has a certain gimmick to it. Instead of exchanging blows with Ianto, we can focus our attacks on the crystal, with the added difficulty that it will momentarily paralyse us whenever we deliver a certain amount of damage.

Regardless, we manage to deliver a fatal blow to the crystal, and the lyrium explodes in a massive blast. Now, Ianto is truly enraged and stops playing around. As we lie on the ground, dying, he prepares to deliver a clean and brutal stab to the heart. But from the side, Varric delivers a well-aimed shot with Bianca, striking Ianto right into the shoulder, causing him to collapse.

This gives Taash enough time to drag us off towards the Siren’s Call II. Once the crystal is gone, Isabela orders a swift retreat, and the pirates are only too happy to oblige.

Reyna loses her fight with the Northern Hunter and gets knocked back. The beast immediately proceeds to rampage further and even pursues us.

Taash, seeing their moment come, hands us over to Isabela and runs towards the dragon. Using the creature’s weak state to their advantage, Taash dodges her claws and climbs upon her back. The dragon flies up, but Taash delivers a fatal blow to her neck, knowing exactly where the weak spots are. As the dragon collapses, Taash directs it right onto the Still Mistress and has it crash directly into the hull, damaging the slaver ship.

While Ianto, Reyna, and the raiders recover, Taash quickly bolts towards the Siren’s Call II before it swiftly starts to sail away, roaring in excited triumph.

Ianto looks at the damage done to his ship and back to the Siren’s Call II, which is already way out of range, swiftly sailing away from the island. He curses but there’s nothing he can do for now.

Back on deck, we are immediately placed in Isabela’s cabin to have our wounds tended to. But before we can express any word of gratitude, we slip back into unconsciousness.

Awakening

We awaken back at the Golden Deck in Llomerryn, our mother bent over us while casting healing spells, channelling the spirits of the island.

Relieved to see us alive, she tells us that the Siren’s Call II returned a few days ago. We’ve been out for quite a while. While we didn’t find much gold, we certainly found glory. The tale of our escape, the crystal, the dragon; it’s in everyone’s mouths right now. She’s proud of us for not allowing the lyrium to leave the island. When we ask her whether she knows what that place could have been, she unfortunately responds with no. But the spirits have been slightly calmer since that day.

Also, Varric would like to speak with us whenever we’re ready.

No Gold, All the Glory

When we enter the public area of the Golden Deck, the Lords of Fortune absolutely lose it with cheers. They ask us to tell our version of the story. We can refuse or indulge them. Well, we’re feeling better now, so we might as well. Once we’re done, the cheers grow louder and Taash gives us a massive clap on the shoulders. This was one of the most thrilling jobs they’ve ever done. Isabela is, quite frankly, surprised that her ship survived without a scratch, but all the more happy about it. The same can’t be said for Ianto, who, according to the latest reports, retreated to Estwatch once his ship was in any shape to be steered again.

Varric steps up and asks us to speak to him in a less public area, about that other job he mentioned earlier.

We sit down in a quiet corner of the Golden Deck. Varric tells us how he has something big coming up, probably the biggest job any Lord of Fortune has ever done in the organisation’s history. Intrigued, we ask what it’s about. Varric can’t tell us yet, but he promises there will definitely be both gold and glory to have in it. He also mentions that we may get answers to what that lyrium crystal was all about. Such ancient dangers have been waking up all over Thedas, and he seeks to find the source and stop it. That’s all he can say for now. And he believes we are an ideal candidate to take on that journey.

Well, bolstered by our successful escape and the crystal’s destruction, we readily agree, for which Varric thanks us.

He also suggests we come up with another name for the time being, since we will have reason not to be public with our affiliation to the Lords of Fortune. We lean back and begin to wrack our head. After a while, Varric suggests Rook, like the chess piece, since we went straight for the goal and succeeded by dealing a massive victorious blow.

Leaving Llomerryn

Before we leave Llomerryn, we have the chance to converse with the Lords of Fortune for one last time:

When we meet Varric, he’s in a conversation with Isabela. Here we get the confirmation that Isabela is about to give the Siren’s Call II over to her first mate, for the time being, as she has accepted a job closely tied for what we’re about to do. We shall board the Siren's Call II and sail to an assigned spot together.

Now known as Rook, we once again board the great ship, leaving Llomerryn behind, to uncertain but definitely more dangerous adventures ahead.

Prologue

Part 8 - The Inquisition

It is now time, time to finally move away from the origin story missions. Now, the main story begins. We have explored the potential depths of what each faction's origin story may bring to Veilguard as a whole. But what about the glue that brings them all together? What about the Inquisition?

In this chapter of my ongoing rewrite project, we shall look into how the Inquisition, and by extension, the main story, may be introduced into the game. As I’ve often said, I don’t really like how DATV just throws you into the confrontation with Solas without any prior build-up. It was quite apparent that, despite DATV doing away with World States, one is expected to understand at least the general plot of Inquisition, and while Varric’s little narration tells us what we need to know to understand Solas’ role in the story, it’s not enough to make us care. Obviously, I cared because I played the previous game, but if we want DATV to stand on its own, like the previous games succeed, we need to do some more work.

So, without further ado, let’s get right into it. This is how I would introduce Veilguard’s main quest.

Our Canon Rook

With everything being said and done, we still need one Rook to focus on. We obviously can't play all six at once. So, for this playthrough, we shall pick Verus Mercar, our Shadow Dragon mage. But worry not. At the end of each chapter, I shall be comprising a small list of notes for how differently the other Rooks would respond to everything going on around them, maybe even receive special options that aren't available to others. But yeah, we shall be doing a Shadow Dragon run here. However, I am also posting this on Tumblr, where I am, in fact, doing a Veil Jumper version of the rewrite. Check that out if you want more differences. If you know of any other site that lets me post lengthy essays like this, please let me know and we can do other Rooks too! With that being said, let's get right into it.

Travelling with Varric

So, we choose to stick with our Shadow Dragon, and at this point the people watching this hypothetical stream are going to whoop and cheer with relief because this guy has finally stopped with the damn origin stories. Now we can get into the main story.

We get a small transitional scene narrated by Varric, which shows a map of Thedas, specifically our journey out of Minrathous, quite similar to what we get in the actual Veilguard. Varric tells us that the Venatori and Laskaris' Salvatio Initiative are just a fraction of what we should be worrying about, and that we first have to attend a certain meeting.

It should be noted that each origin will have a unique narration and map display, but more on that later. But all in all, it amounts to them having to make a stop somewhere at the Eyes of Nocen.

The Eyes of Nocen are a large geographical landmass in the North-East of Tevinter, not far away from the cities of Ventus and Carastes, which have both been overtaken by the Qunari between Trespasser and Veilguard. There is also some interesting lore surrounding that place, which we’ll get to later.

On the Road

When we return back to in-game cinematics, we find Rook and Varric travelling through the Tevinter countryside at dusk. At this point, we can ask about where exactly we’re going and what we’re hoping to find here.

As we walk, Varric begins telling us that there are people who have been working to stop the Venatori for the past decade, the people who have been fighting them since the very beginning. But since resources are sparse and only a handful of people are trustworthy, such efforts can’t be spoken of out in the open.

Since we’re playing a Tevinter mage, we can now express our disbelief that the Venatori are still so utterly powerful. Corypheus has been defeated a decade ago. Varric responds by stating something rather new about the Venatori that we didn't know back in Inquisition yet: they have been around for longer than that. Corypheus was just the monster they all rallied behind, the one that gave them true power and purpose. But now they have returned to worshipping the Old Gods, namely Razikale and Lusacan, the only two supposedly still alive, since the other five have been slain by the Grey Wardens.

We proceed further down the road, until we are met with a distressing sight: a battlefield, and a very recent one at that. We come across the remnants of a skirmish between the Antaam of Seheron and Tevinter troops who were sent to retake some of the occupied lands. It’s an image of absolute carnage, war, and death. Since we’re playing a Shadow Dragon, we can express our anger over how this senseless war has been driving our country to the brink of utter ruin. And now Laskaris wants to use slaves to get an edge. Slaves and...our own father. Our own father who died when we saved him from that collar. Varric comforts us a little. Maybe Charon Mercar is still alive. Maybe Laskaris is holding him somewhere. Maybe he can still be saved.

The Scout

As Rook and Varric traverse the battlefield, they are suddenly approached by a surviving group of Antaam warriors, who are looking for Tevinter legionnaires that might have escaped their blades.

They circle us and demand to know who we are, what we want, and where we’re off to. Varric, having plenty of experience with the Qunari, tries to talk our way out of it. Here’s a small choice to be made:

Since we're a Tevinter man, and a mage at that, we hang back in silence, which draws some suspicion. They ask us who we are, and if we have skilled enough Charisma points, which we have, we can try to lie our way out of this. But, since we’re obviously a mage, they immediately see us as Saarebas and therefore too dangerous to be seen walking around unshackled. We bristle at that and get ready to fight. Varric simply shrugs. Reasoning with the Antaam has never quite worked out for him. But this small exchange showed him that we’re eager to talk first before hitting people.

Just as the Qunari are about to attack, their group leader is struck down by a well-placed arrow in the eye. At this point, another, very familiar face joins the scene: Scout Lace Harding! She thinks we could use a little help, to which Varric responds that the odds are even now, even though the Qunari still rather outnumber us.

We fight the Qunari with Varric and Harding at our side. It’s a short battle mostly serving to introduce Harding to the party, and we make rather short work of our enemies.

What follows is Harding’s proper introduction. She is happy to see Varric and intrigued by Rook. So, this is the one Varric chose for this mission, the integral part that will give us an edge. Varric confirms this, a bonus being that us being a member of the Mercar family, and a Laetan at that, provides us with additional knowledge regarding Tevinter. Harding inquires about the Venatori. Yes, they have risen in strength once again. Troubling news, indeed. Even more reason to get to our destination as quickly as possible. Harding then tells Varric that everything is ready. Everyone’s just waiting for us. Well, Varric says, then we shouldn’t keep them waiting. Rook is about to meet some very esteemed company.

A quick note on Harding here. While she will still be this cheerful and hopeful person from the game, I would like to remove some of the extreme quirkiness and bring back the maturity she had in DAI. A hopeful optimist who is still mature is something that exists!

But before we press on, Harding mentions that she was tracking a group of Antaam soldiers who rounded up some Tevinter slaves with the intention of bringing them to Seheron, and suggests we free them. Varric is generally for the idea, but worries that our numbers might be too sparse.

So, now we get to make a choice:

This right here is going to be the first of many smaller choices we get to make in the game. Before Veilguard came out, people spoke of how incredibly reactive it would be, how it, while not having a World State, would compensate by having many intricate choices on its own. This didn’t quite happen the way I thought it would, so let us entertain the idea of what minor reactive consequences could look like if placed in the proper moments.

We are a Tevinter mage, and a part of the Shadow Dragons. We know what slavery is and how it festers in our nation. We know that slaves are seen as nothing but tools in Tevinter, and Laskaris' advance only further proves that. But they are still living beings. We’re not going to let anyone share in this fate if we can help it. We choose to take the detour and free the slaves.

Freeing the Slaves

Once our trio is on the same page, we follow Harding to a small Qunari encampment on the battlefield. It’s absolutely nothing fancy, just a temporary base. The slaves aren’t hard to find as they’re all cooped up in an improvised large cage, guarded by Antaam warriors.

After a brief and slightly more difficult fight, the Qunari are defeated and we free the slaves. And here’s when we notice something rather dark: the slaves are all wearing the blood collars. If you recall, Laskaris introduced the blood magic collar as a way to combat the Qunari threat. And seeing it here means that he’s already implementing in in small doses amidst the army, permitting the use of blood magic.

We are horrified by this discovery and see that the slaves have no way of getting them off. We are also angry at how quickly this seems to be spreading since we just got out of Minrathous. They tell us that the Centurio who led this party performed a blood magic spell to bind them to his will, as per Laskaris’ instructions. The Centurio in question is still alive, about to be given the qamek treatment, which would render him a mindless puppet.

We tell the slaves to wait here until we’ve dealt with the Centurio. So we proceed further through the encampment, fighting off a few more Qunari along the way, until we get to the leader’s tent. The leader in question is a Sten (no, not our Sten, that one’s the Arishok now).

We make it just in time before the qamek is able to be applied to the Tevinter mage screaming in absolute panic. And here’s where we get to make another smaller choice:

Having just experienced the blood collars in action all the way back in Minrathous, we are furious. But we’re also not someone who exposes people to fates worse than death, that’s not who we are. So we hurry up and blast the Sten into the Void before he can apply the qamek.

With all the Qunari dead, the Centurio is now free as the sole military survivor of this small campaign. Seeing how we are a Tevinter mage ourselves, he thanks us profusely for the aid, and even suspects that we are some manner of back-up sent to retrieve him and the slaves.

At this point, we allow ourselves to be angry and strike him while he’s weakened. Before his confused self can react, we demand that he release the slaves from the blood collars. We threaten that if he won’t comply, we shall either bind him to a pole for the next Qunari patrol to find, or we can apply the qamek ourselves. Or we could just kill him, his choice.

Reluctantly, the mage relents and we take him to the slaves. With one last look, he relinquishes his blood magic hold on the collars and they open up, falling into the dirt.

Now comes the next choice. What do we do with the Centurio?

Everything in us wants to cause pain to this man who had contributed to the enslavement and torture of innocent beings. But we’re choosing to play a Rook who’s of the more merciful sort. Rook chooses to let the Centurio live and allow him to scamper back to Laskaris and report on his failure. But we are not too merciful either. Being a Tevinter mage experienced with the ways of the Legion, we brand him with the mark of disgrace, a sort of military punishment that shows to everyone that this person is not to be trusted with the rank they currently hold and would be better off demoted. Is this truly the merciful way? Who knows. Before we send him on his way, we ask for his name. He introduces himself as Centurio Vilius. Well, we shall remember that name. And it's just Vilius now, right?

We turn back to the liberated slaves who thank us profusely. And now comes our last choice for this scene. What do we do with the slaves?

We ask Varric if the place we’re heading to has any room for more people, to which he says yes. We could either take them to safety or send them on their way. As a Shadow Dragon, and the child of Charon Mercar, we do actually have some experience in looking after escaped slaves or help them disappear. So we take them under our wing. Varric and Harding approve.

Now we really need to get going before even more Antaam troops arrive. We gather ourselves and move on.

This entire segment was completely optional, we could have skipped it entirely. But choosing to free the slaves gave us further insight into the blood collars and allowed us to participate in some potentially morally grey choices. Of course, our Rook chose the most paragon-esque outcomes, but the game lets us do some extensive roleplaying in scenes like this.

The Cliffside

As the day draws to a close and night falls upon the coastal countryside of Tevinter, Rook, Varric, Harding, and the freed slaves reach a cliff overlooking the vast Ventosus Straits, the body of water that separates Tevinter from Seheron.

At first, we see nothing truly remarkable, just a cliff, a very high cliff at that. But then, Varric directs us to a set of barely noticeable steps, carved into the rock. Slowly, we make our way down, closer and closer to the moonlit surface of the sea, ensuring that none of the former slaves fall into the sea, until we come upon the entrance to a cave, hidden behind a spell of concealment. Since Varric and Harding know where the entrance is, they just pass through the wall. Rook has a momentary confused reaction, before following, guiding the freed slaves through as well.

Meeting Charter

As we enter the cave, we are approached by another rather familiar figure: Charter. Those who only played the games might remember her as the stoic elven commander from Caer Bronach in Crestwood. Those who have read the comics and Tevinter Nights will remember her as basically the new Leliana. She goes around Thedas and recruits all kinds of people into the Inquisition. Veilguard mentions that she is the new Spymaster after Leliana, and you can read a few letters from her.

I absolutely adore Charter as a character and think it’s rather criminal that she was scrapped from Veilguard. So, we’re going to include her here. Since in this World State, Leliana has assumed the role of Divine Victoria, we can confidently say that Charter is the Spymaster here.

Charter remarks that we’re late, to which Harding explains that we took a little detour. The Spymaster studies Rook and the former slaves and says that yeah, she can see that, and then remarks that, somehow, she isn’t surprised that a Tevinter mage has been chosen for this endeavour. It will certainly provide us with an edge when dealing with the Venatori. 

Since Rook hasn’t been living under a rock, we can now begin to guess where we are headed. So we ask the people around us if we are about to join the Inquisition. Charter explains that the Inquisition does not officially exist anymore, only a shadow organisation that operates in the dark, away from the enemy’s gaze. Too great is the risk of corruption amidst the ranks, as we all remember from Trespasser. But in the most direct sense: yes, we are about to join what remains of the Inquisition. But all of it can be explained later. We must now head off. Everything is ready. We ask what “everything” is, to which Charter only replies that we’re about to find out. Harding promises that we’re going to be absolutely floored by what we’re about to see.

The Palace of Almadrius

As we move further down through the cave, we occasionally see glimpses of ruins, remnants of an ancient palace that must have been magnificent once. By investigating and asking our guides, we learn that we are traversing what remains of the palace of Archon Almadrius. He was briefly mentioned in DA2 in a codex entry for having built a lavish palace near the Eyes of Nocen, manned by many guards. But one day, everything disappeared without a trace. Well, given the state of this place, we can deduce that some kind of spell or cataclysm caused it to collapse beneath the waves. Since we're playing a Shadow Dragon, we can actually come to this conclusion ourselves, since we are likely a well-read individual, especially concerning the history of our own nation.

This is one of many examples of environmental storytelling that Dragon Age is so masterful at. Just by looking at the world, we can see traces of its history. We could have made this a simple cave, but thanks to the location and the legends surrounding it, we can now make it so much more.

Eventually, Charter takes us to a wide cavernous area beneath the sea. Magical barriers prevent rocks, ruins, and water from collapsing upon us. And right in the middle of it all, we see a monstrous vessel. An underwater ship in the shape of a great dragon. True to Harding’s word, Rook is absolutely floored by the sight. We have now reached the end of our journey. This is the Dumat.

The Dumat

Just like the rest of you, I have seen the concept art book. And when I saw this gigantic dragon submarine, I knew I had to include it in the rewrite. Does it take heavy inspiration from the Normandy in terms of having a mobile base in the form of a ship? Yes. Does that mean we’re no longer following the Dragon Age formula? I…honestly don’t think so.

Tevinter is a land of magic, a land of magic allied with the dwarves of Orzammar, master craftsmen, master craftsmen who also employ enchantments. There is a lot that can be done when those two forces sit down together and plan not war, but a work of wonder. And I don’t really subscribe to the idea that the concept of a submarine goes against the fantasy genre. You can make it work if you give it the proper look and feel, and give it a logical explanation for existing in the setting.

But I also have another reason for choosing the Dumat as the hub instead of the Lighthouse: I have something else planned for the Lighthouse and the Crossroads as a whole. It’ll still be a while before we get there, since Solas is still around and has his agents in this rewrite.

As we approach the Dumat, Rook is still absolutely shocked. This is the first time she has ever seen an underwater vessel. And truth be told, this is probably the first submarine in Thedas’ history. Varric tells us that we still have some friends in the Magisterium and Orzammar, plus the funding of some other powerful friends. Combine all that, and you get this. Rook, who has been living in a magical nation all his life, is still capable of marvelling at the sheer wonders it can do.

We board the Dumat and find ourselves in an…actually very homely-looking interior. It’s not overly lavish but definitely comfortable, as well as practical. There is a lot of room for people here, that much is clear. While we’re walking, we just can’t shake off the feeling of sheer awe that’s going through us right now. This is where we’re going to be staying for the foreseeable future? Incredible.

Charter calls upon a crew member to direct the freed slaves to the quarters. They are to be bathed, fed, and properly dressed. When they get some rest, they shall be questioned to make sure none of them secretly work for the enemy.

The Briefing

We eventually make it to a war-room-like place with a large round table in the centre. Only Rook, Varric, Harding, and Charter are currently present. But that is soon changed, for before we even get to properly speak, the door opens and another face joins us. It is none other than Isabela! The moment she heard of Varric's arrival, she needed to come and see him for herself. Varric is glad that she accepted the offer and made it in time. As seen in the Lords of Fortune origin story, Isabela gave the Siren’s Call II to her first mate for the time being as she was chosen for another job. This is it. Isabela is going to be the captain of the Dumat.

Personally, I think this is something that fits Isabela’s character a bit more than being the stay-at-home leader for the Lords of Fortune. This way, she’s going to still be able to contribute to the story, but in a way that is far more in-line with her personality. Isabela would never miss up on the opportunity to sail an underwater vessel. And she does happen to be one of the most skilled captains around.

Isabela greets us and says that she wonders what Fenris would have thought of us, hopefully better than Danarius. The meeting begins with Varric and Rook telling Charter and Isabela of everything that happened in Minrathous and how we confronted the Venatori. Because we took that slave-liberating detour, we can also speak of the blood collars. Isabela is angered by this new method, especially since she knows the Qunari won't give up so easily. They never do. She knows.

At this point, Rook has had enough of the secrecy surrounding his part in all of this and asks Varric why he specifically was recruited into this affair. Varric agrees that it is time, so he begins a story. And this is where we get the “I knew him as Solas” speech we get at the beginning of the vanilla game. But it’s going to be slightly longer. We get a few more thoughts and feelings of how Solas was as a person and what exactly he did while serving in the Inquisition. We get a brief recap of the war against Corypheus, the betrayal at the end of Trespasser, and the decade-long shadow war against the Dread Wolf. It all culminates in Varric saying how Solas is now approaching the fulfilment of his promise: to tear down the Veil and restore Elvhenan. “Somebody’s gotta stop him. And that’s…where you come in.”

So then. This is what our purpose is. To join the fight against the Dread Wolf, the evil deity of a foreign religion. And now we learn that it was he who created the Veil.

We are...overwhelmed. Not only are we expected to believe that the elven gods exist, or powerful mages who were seen as gods, we are also expected to fight one of them. How does this relate to the Venatori? Why...how...

We just got absolute confirmation that the Dalish beliefs are true. Well, Varric says, yes and no. Solas never referred to himself as a god. So what about the Maker? What about the Old Gods? What is the true religion? And then we realise something else. “How do I…come in?” we ask. “What am I supposed to do?”

Then we learn our role: We won’t just be joining this shadow war. We’ll be one of the people leading it. As Varric’s second-in-command. While he will be making plans and arranging everything in the background, accompanying us when the situation demands it, it is us who must be out there in the field, recruiting allies, carrying out heists, learning and undermining the Dread Wolf’s plans. We are Rook. The strongest piece on the chessboard. The one Solas will never see coming. The one he doesn’t know. When out in the field, Varric will entrust leadership to us.

So at this point, I’m choosing to play Rook as incredibly shocked and overwhelmed, to the point where he outright refuses. Why would we be the perfect fit for such a high position? Varric lists our accomplishments among the Shadow Dragons and as part of the Mercar family, how we took initiative against the Venatori, how we truly aim to make the world a better place by freeing slaves and fighting oppression, and how we don’t give up. We fit perfectly. Obviously, this dialogue is going to be different for every origin story.

We are still overwhelmed, and don’t know what to say. But then the door opens, and another figure steps in.

The Inquisitor

We are joined in the meeting chamber by Inquisitor Elera Lavellan herself. Yeah, I chose to have the Inquisitor appear right at the beginning of the story. I mean, we already made her in the CC, it’s not a big reveal that she’s in this game. But it also makes thematic sense for her to be here. She was our last player character. Who better to pass on the torch and give us the final push into this new adventure than her?

The Inquisitor, wearing Dalish clothes and carrying a staff, an enchanted ironbark prosthetic for her left arm, and no Shadow Dragon pjs to be seen anywhere (seriously what was that about), walks up to us and pretty much says how she felt the same when she was given the task to close the Breach and defeat Corypheus ten years ago. Nobody’s born a fighter, much less so a leader.

We get to have a small conversation with Lavellan. I’m choosing to have Rook react in awe to her because, of course, he has heard of her, how an elf rose up and heroically led the Inquisition against the greatest of evils. Those were stories we heard as a teenager. So many in Tevinter laughed at the notion of an elf leading anything, much less an Andrastian organisation. And some expressed quiet anger that she was able to overcome Corypheus. But never us. Not us. And now we shall be joining this fight. Now it’s our turn to become a part of this ever-growing tale.

The Inquisitor, just like Leliana and Cassandra did at the beginning of DAI, tells us that we are free to go if we so choose. But if we stay in this fight, we shall make the world a safer place.

Varric chimes in and states how all of this started with the Hero of Ferelden’s quest against the Blight, how it continued into Hawke’s battles with the shadows of Kirkwall, how it reached new heights in the Inquisitor’s war against the Elder One, and now the time has come for what he feels and hopes is the final chapter. And Rook gets to be one of the central characters, if not the central.

We think long and hard, but then we see where we are. We are aboard an underwater ship, amidst the remnants of the Inquisition. We are standing amidst legends. And these legends have become flesh and chosen us to join them. We have the chance to liberate Tevinter, to save the world from total chaos. Solas, Fen’Harel, the Dread Wolf, has returned. And with him, the ancient conflict that started all the way in the ancient days of Arlathan, when the Magisters sank the city into the ground and enslaved an entire race, may come to an end. Justice may be served at last. Maybe this time, Tevinter can be a force for good. It needs that chance.

With a heavy breath, we shake hands with the Inquisitor, mirroring the scene in Haven’s Chantry so many years ago.

What follows is a cinematic showing Rook, Varric, Harding, Charter, Isabela, and Inquisitor Lavellan standing in the control room of the Dumat. Lavellan gives a nod and Isabela takes hold of the helm.

From outside, we see how the protective spells and wards that kept the cavern dry during the ship’s construction phase begin to flicker, until they disappear entirely. The Palace of Almadrius sinks beneath the waters once again, having fulfilled its purpose.

The Dumat floats in the darkness of the cavern, seemingly suspended in a shapeless void. But then, dwarven crystals and runes begin shimmering around it. Tevene magic creates light on the interior side, flooding the rooms with mysterious shines of many colours. Then, the ship begins to move. It slithers and glides through the cavern, until it swims out into the open sea. From afar, it looks like a great sea creature, not at all a ship. Perfect for the purpose of remaining unseen.

As the Dumat glides through the moonlit waters, the camera pans up to show Thedas’ two moons shining upon the deceptively calm sea. A distant wind comes up, and as the screen begins to fade to black, we hear the single howl of a lonely wolf.

The screen goes black, and we finally see the title of our game:

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf

The Other Rooks

And now comes the little segment in which I give a brief overview on how different the other five Rooks could have experienced the mission. Let's get right into it.

Grey Wardens

• The narration shows Rook and Varric travelling from the Anderfels to the Eyes of Nocen, and the overall discussion on the road centers around the darkspawn threat and the decline of the Wardens.
• Rook can perform the Right of Conscription on Vilius, and convince him that it's still active outside of Blights.
• Rook can send the freed slaves to Weisshaupt Fortress, where they may either find short refuge or decide if they want to try and become Wardens themselves.

Veil Jumpers

• The narration shows Rook and Varric travelling from Arlathan Forest to the Eyes of Nocen, and the overall discussion on the road centers around the agents of Fen'Harel and the slow realisation that the Dread Wolf is real.
• Vilius is far more antagonistic towards Rook for being an elf.
• Isabela reacts to Merrill's betrayal in a devastated manner and is sure that she can still be saved.

Antivan Crows

• The narration shows Rook and Varric travelling from Treviso to the Eyes of Nocen, and the overall discussion on the road centers around the Antaam invasion and Ivenci's betrayal.
• Rook can use their status as an Antivan Crow to get herself hired by one of the freed slaves in exchange for a piece of cloth or something to properly assassinate Vilius.
• Rook comments on how the Dumat can be very useful against the Antaam in Treviso.

Mourn Watch

• The narration shows Rook and Varric travelling from Nevarra City to the Eyes of Nocen, and the overall discussion on the road centers around the growing power of the undead.
• Rook can use her necromantic teachings to kill Vilius and summon a spirit into his body, sending him along with the freed slaves as a guard.

Lords of Fortune

• The narration shows Rook and Varric travelling from Llomerryn to the Eyes of Nocen, and the overall discussion on the road centers around Ianto's threat to the seas, and whether or not the Antaam has any connection to him.
• Isabela accompanies Rook and Varric on this journey and gets to the Dumat with us.
• Rook has an extra special eye for the things around them and can loot the battlefield for more valuables than anyone else.
• Rook can perform daylight robbery on Vilius and take his precious armour and staff to sell it someplace else.

Act 1

Part 1 - The Dumat

Last time we decided to use the original concept of the Dumat submarine as our hub for the game, so I thought to dedicate this next entry to the ship alone, as we just entered a little breather phase between main missions. We just finished the prologue, got our title card, were recruited into the Northern arm of the shadow Inquisition, and are about to embark on our quest to stop the Dread Wolf. But before we can do that, we must acquaint ourselves with our base a little, so we shall do just that!

We shall now take a look at what immediately happens once the title card fades away, the Dumat as a ship, its contents, the NPCs you can meet there, and the upgrades you can perform on it. Let’s get right into it!

The Inquisitor Departs

Once the title card fades, we have another cutscene that shows the Dumat quietly floating beneath the moonlit waters.

Rook and Varric meet the Inquisitor and Charter at the captain’s cabin. Lavellan informs us that she and her Spymaster must depart the ship now, for their presence is bound to eventually draw some unwanted attention from the enemy, especially in the Inquisitor’s case. We notice that she seems a bit hesitant when speaking about the Dread Wolf.

We do not get to question that yet. Charter lets us know that Harding has her contact details if we ever need to reach her, whereas the Inquisitor remains silent about her future whereabouts. She just says that she will monitor the proceedings of the war between Tevinter and the Antaam and use her resources to help however she can, as well as perhaps draw the attention of Fen’Harel’s agents to distract the Dread Wolf from us. But she’s confident we will meet again, and sooner than we think. Leaving the operation to Varric, the two bid each other farewell.

Isabela enters and informs them that their transport is ready. The Inquisitor and Charter depart, leaving us in charge of the Dumat.

Varric tells us to get accustomed to the ship before doing anything else; it truly is a masterwork of magic and craftsmanship blending into one. When we’re ready, we must make to the meeting chamber and discuss our first moves. He leaves us to it.

Now we get to control Rook again, so let’s…take a little tour, shall we?

Exploring the Dumat

The Dumat is a submarine in every sense of its functions, that much is true. But we must not forget that this is still a fantasy game, so the goal isn’t to make it look like a submarine as we know one from our time. We’re going to have some fun.

It should be mentioned that the Dumat isn’t made from metal, but from the same dark rock as most buildings in Minrathous. But that’s only one part of it. The Dumat may have been built in Tevinter, with Tevene materials, but she was built by dwarves and mages alike. Enchantments and runes are carved into the walls in aesthetically pleasing ways, the entire construction lives and breathes magic, just like Minrathous.

When we move through the submarine, it looks like we’re walking through an underwater mansion. There are arcane lights everywhere, floating orbs, and so much more. The Dumat is a submarine, yes, but it is very much integrated into the setting. And now, we get to take a look.

The Captain’s Cabin

The captain’s cabin is Isabela’s place, where she resides and plans. It is filled with trophies from her past exploits, as well as one or two memos from her time in Kirkwall. Isabela herself frequents either the cabin or the bridge mostly, but it is to note that NPCs can and will change rooms occasionally.

We can talk to Isabela here and ask her about her life and past adventures, even about that business with the Tome of Koslun if we pry hard enough.

Isabela is also the person we see about upgrading the Dumat, but we shall return to this topic later.

The Bridge

The bridge is located not very far away from the captain’s cabin and is one of the central locations on the Dumat. It is located above the majority of the ship, in a room with magically protected glass, allowing us to see what awaits us ahead. Isabela will occasionally be found here, steering the ship where it needs to go.

Rook’s Chamber

Rook’s chamber is a very comfortable and relaxing place. And I’m actually going to go out on a whim and say that it looks pretty much like the one we see at the Lighthouse in Veilguard, just a bit larger and containing an actual bed. But I love this whole aquarium window idea.

Here’s where we can find missives addressed directly to us. Personal stuff, mementos, things like that. Here, we can also find the appearance-changing mirror that will allow us to enter the character creator once again.

The Common Area

The common area is this big lounging area, positioned in front of this transparent glass wall that lets us look into the ocean. A magically-powered arcane fire roars in a nearby fireplace. There are tables, couches, and books aplenty. Here’s where we shall be having some more relaxing times later. Many characters will often converge here for banter-related purposes.

The Armoury

The armoury is pretty self-explanatory. Here’s where we can purchase weapons and armour, as well as upgrade them! It is located somewhere in the back of the Dumat, where the loud sounds won’t disturb anyone.

And here’s where we’ll meet two more members of our crew. As Rook enters, a man immediately jumps at him and begins taking his measurements, exclaiming that yes, finally, finally, he can begin crafting new masterpieces! Another, much calmer man, pulls him aside and says “Wade, not this again. Take a deep breath.”

Yes, we’re bringing back Wade and Herren, the iconic duo from Origins. They did have a small war table quest in DAI, but here they are back in the flesh. Rook and his team need a true master craftsman to equip them, so a master we shall receive, as well as his very much needed stop button called Herren.

Wade immediately insists upon crafting the most amazing things ever, to which Herren quickly calms him down, apologising profusely to us. While Herren sells us normal stuff, Wade can do the special items for us. Just like in DAO, we’re gonna need pretty exquisite materials.

The Room of Runes

The room of runes is a pretty mysterious place aboard the Dumat. It’s pretty much the anchor for all runic activity that protects and powers the ship. Yes, there are dwarven runes all over the place, but this is the heart of it all. Each rune that can be found on the Dumat has its larger replica here. Powerful enchantments everywhere. It actually looks rather beautiful, as though we stepped into a glittering underground cave filled with various stars.

As soon as we enter the room, we see a dwarven man with short blonde hair and piercing, striking blue eyes. When we greet him, he only has one word for us: “Enchantment!”

Another dwarf joins us, older, with greying hair, who introduces himself as Bodahn Feddic, and the young man next to him is his dear boy Sandal. “Say hello, Sandal!” “Hello!”

Yes, there is the other iconic duo form DAO that I’m bringing back here, because…why not? If this is the last entry in the saga, we may as well start tying up all lose ends.

The Feddics are back, oh yes! They are much older, true, but they are still the same people. Bodahn tells us that Varric brought them here from Kirkwall to, once again, do some good. Bodahn wanted to retire, but if his boy is meant for greater things, he won’t be far behind to support him. I also need Sandal for something later in the story, but we’ll talk about that another time.

As you guessed, this is the place we go to for rune crafting, whenever we need enchantments. Sandal is going to be very happy to provide some. Bodahn, as always, is a merchant from whom we can buy our everyday stuff. He can also be found in the common area for the sake of ease.

The Garden

This is Harding’s place, a beautiful garden area located in the more central area of the Dumat. Originally intended as a place of quiet meditation, Harding found a better use for it by repurposing it into an underground garden. A magical light causes the plants here to grow.

This is the first time we can have a proper, long conversation with Harding, where we learn about her relationship to Varric and the Inquisition as a whole, and how she came to serve in the first place.

We also get some info regarding her and Varric’s hunt for Solas, as well as her opinion on him. She tells us that, yes, as a Tevinter resident, we may see Solas as a foreign concept, something that shouldn't even exist, an insult to the Chant of Light, but he was something else at Skyhold. As an Imperial Andrastian, we dismiss any notion that Solas may truly be a god. Instead, however, we are fully ready to accept him being a very powerful mage with god-like powers.

The Garden also serves another function: Here, we can plant and gather ingredients to brew or increase the potency of potions to help us along on our adventures.

The Meeting Chamber

This is basically Dreadwolf’s version of the war room. Here’s where all the mission briefings happen. We can also often find reports from across all Thedas. Who knows, we might even have our own version of war table missions later.

This is one of the areas Varric often occupies, like in this case. We can ask him about how his story began, even though we know the official, famous version of it. If we like, we can listen to some brief recaps of the past few games through his point of view and how it seems like he just can’t get out of this shit.

We can also inquire as to what’s happening in Kirkwall right now. Varric, who is still the Viscount, says that he left Aveline in charge while he’s on this job. It is still the shithole it was years ago, but it is improving, at least he hopes so.

Of course, there are more rooms on the Dumat, but we shall unlock them as we move on through the story and add to her expanding crew. So I shall simply add on to them as we go along.

Upgrades

Let’s touch on the topic of upgrades now. I think the Dumat is an excellent opportunity to bring back a proper system to upgrade our base. Vigil’s Keep had one, Skyhold had…a very lite version of one, the Normandy had a pretty cool one in ME2. If anything, I believe we should be inspired by the Normandy when it comes to this.

There are story-relevant upgrades, as well as flavour and aesthetics. And all of them can be purchased from Isabela. The upgrades we have available to us at the beginning of the game are as follows:

Now comes one of the effects of disbanding the Inquisition: none of the upgrades have been commissioned and applied yet. Isabela explains that the Inquisition doesn’t have as many resources as it once did, and what it did have was mostly used to construct the Dumat.

Had we kept the Inquisition the big official organisation, we would be having more funds now, and those starter upgrades, as well as some decorations, would have already been purchased. But as it stands now, we’re going to have to provide the cash.

Mission Briefing

When we’re done exploring the currently accessible areas of the Dumat, Rook, Varric, Harding, and Isabela all gather in the meeting chamber, where Varric introduces us to the first two missions we can choose from:

We now have a choice between us. Do we travel to Minrathous and assist Neve in her blood collar case? Or do we return to Arlathan Forest and seek out Bellara? One way or another, we need both of them.

Act 1

Part 2 - Neve Gallus

Now that we have thoroughly explored the parts of the Dumat currently available to us, it is time to embark on our first main mission, and it is, shockingly, a companion recruitment.

Last time, we were presented with a choice: do we head back to Minrathous and recruit Neve Gallus, or do we travel to Arlathan Forest and find Bellara Lutare? Well, in this playthrough, we choose to go to Minrathous first. First of all, as a Shadow Dragon, it would be great to go and check out how things are following our departure, and we already know Neve. It should be easier to get her.

So, in Veilguard, Neve doesn’t really have much of a recruitment mission. We find her in the opening mission and she follows us to our confrontation with Solas. Well, in this chapter of the rewrite, we shall be incorporating elements of that original opening mission that are still good to be used, but we’re going to change some of the context around them to turn them into a Neve-exclusive recruitment mission.

Simultaneously, we shall also be looking at how to introduce the Shadow Dragons as a faction into the main story.

So, without further ado, let us dive in. This is how Neve joins the party in our rewrite project.

Accepting the Mission

Continuing from where we left off, Rook chooses to travel to Minrathous in order to find and recruit Neve Gallus for our fight against Solas. And here is something I would like to establish pretty early on: Solas is still the big threat at this point in the game. Stopping him is our number one priority. We don’t know anything about Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain yet. There is no Sixth Blight yet. The great ritual that unleashes all of that has not yet begun. This means that all the companions we recruit and all the efforts we undertake right now are to stop Solas. You can therefore expect some changes in how we recruit the other companions here so that everything fits this context.

I’m doing this for one pretty obvious reason: We need to have some payoff after Trespasser. At least for a good first chunk of the game, it is the sequel to everything that’s been set up there. The Evanuris are a great threat in their own right, but they deserve some proper build-up as well.

After choosing to go to Minrathous, Varric grunts and comments on how we’re about to return to the most despicable city he's ever laid his eyes upon. Minrathous…is not a nice place. And we’re doing the lore-accurate Minrathous, not the sanitised one we see in Veilguard. This was one of my biggest critiques of the vanilla game: Minrathous is just too nice of a place to be in. It’s supposed to be nice only for the Tevinter upper classes. Everyone else works and suffers. It’s pretty much a dystopian society. Like, Kirkwall and the fucked-up shit we saw there is just a pale imitation of what awaits us in this city.

Once all is decided, Isabela enters the meeting chamber, and Varric tells her to set a course for Minrathous. She whistles as that’s a pretty eager first destination, but she is ready to test her new ship that way. She tells us all to relax and enjoy the voyage.

What follows is a cinematic of the Dumat gliding through the depths of the Nocen Sea like some kind of gigantic sea monster.

The Silence

At some point, we’re approached by Varric who instructs us to follow him. Joined by Harding, we enter a previously unseen part of the ship. It looks like a dock, but without water. Instead, suspended in the air, we see another submarine, much, much smaller. This one only fits a few people, but is of an equal dragon-shaped form to our main vessel, except much leaner.

Isabela introduces us to the Dumat’s precious little daughter, the Silence, a vessel meant to detach itself from the main ship to approach a chosen destination in a much more clandestine manner.

I would like the Dumat to remain the main base in the deep waters. The problem with that is that the image of such a gigantic submarine trying to wind its way through city canals is kind of ridiculous. So we need a bit of a smaller boat to fulfill that function, one specifically reserved for Rook and the party. This is our main way of reaching our actual mission location.

I named her Silence because Dumat is the Dragon of Silence, but I’m pretty sure everyone who’s reading this is well aware of that, so I won’t be dwelling on it for too much. Rook, however, being from Tevinter, finds it slightly amusing how the ship is designed and named after one of the Old Gods, and wonders whose idea that was. Varric comments that it was the result of a long discussion between various people, and ultimately nobody could think of anything better.

Anyway, Rook, Harding, Varric, and Isabela board the Silence, and Isabela immediately takes the wheel. Varric urges us to watch along, in case we ever need to navigate her ourselves.

In a short cinematic, the dark stone floor beneath the Silence opens and she drops down into the seawater. Varric tells us that he’s arranged for a meeting with the Shadow Dragons in their underground lair. They know better than anyone how to reach Neve Gallus in a secret manner. We look forward to seeing our people again, and would love to catch up with Maevaris again.

Harding then speaks of the last time she and Varric have been to Minrathous, and it was, incidentally, on their hunt for Solas a while ago. It was the culmination of a goose chase that led them across half of Northern Thedas, including Arlathan Forest. They learned that Solas was collecting various Venatori artifacts and freeing slaves in the process. Ultimately, Solas narrowly escaped after presenting her and Varric with the choice of either pursuing him or helping the slaves he freed to remain free. This is a reference to the story depicted in the Missing comics. Varric, of course, returned to Minrathous a bit more recently to hire us for the cause. Rook is a bit surprised to hear that Solas would be interested in freeing slaves, to which Varric tells us that there may be some things we don’t yet know about the Dread Wolf, or Ancient Elvhenan in general. When we begin to press further, we’re told to ask the Inquisitor when next we meet, as she can provide the best account of what she discovered by far. We make a mental note to ask her when the opportunity presents itself again.

Arrival in Minrathous

When we first arrive in Minrathous, we don’t really see it yet, as we’re approaching the city from underwater. What we do see, however, are the hulls of several ships heading here and there, strange fish swimming about, magical crystals keeping the water clean. What we also see, as we pass them, are several sunken ruins. There are palaces, walls, castles, shipwrecks, and also, beneath all the Tevinter rubble, Ancient Elvhen architecture. Rook immediately recognises it for what it is. Minathous, like so much of Tevinter, was built on the bones of Ancient Elvhenan. Anyone who spends some time doing proper research will know this. Rook being from Tevinter was one such person. Varric isn't surprised by this at all, he learned it from Dorian a while ago.

From his pocket, Varric produces a sending crystal and contacts someone. He soon gets a response on the other end, and we recognise the voice as Maevaris. We give our greetings, and she is happy to hear our voice again. In order to enter the Shadow Lair from the waters, she instructs us to swim beneath the sunken statue of a halla. We have heard of the statue ourselves but never seen it before, since, until now, we had no way to actually navigate underwater.

Isabela immediately looks for the landmark and finds it straight away. Beneath the sunken remains of an ancient halla statue, the Silence enters a dark cavern. Immediately, a set of glowing crystals attached to the Silence’s outer hull illuminate our surroundings.

Varric thanks Maevaris, we’ll see each other in a bit.

The Shadow Lair

The Silence moves through a few more dark flooded passages, until we finally break through the surface.

We now find ourselves in the Undercity, which we already got a glimpse of in the Shadow Dragon origin.

The Silence docks right at the entrance to the Shadow Lair, the headquarters of the Shadow Dragons. We are immediately greeted by Maevaris in person, who is glad to see us all again, especially Varric.

Being a Shadow Dragon ourselves, we don't need any kind of introduction to this place and go straight into speaking with Maevaris. Maevaris never met Solas, but she knows enough from Varric and Dorian to grasp the scope of the situation.

We then state that we came to recruit Neve Gallus, a decision Maevaris approves of. However, we need to actually meet with her first, and it might be difficult to get her to leave straight away as she’s in the middle of something.

We then get confirmation that, indeed, Neve has been on Laskaris and the Venatoris' trail ever since the events at the Coliseum. We're only too eager to assist her in this. Finally we can fight the Venatori again. Perhaps the two forces are even linked to some degree, though Varric disagrees with the notion, since Solas absolutely detests slavery.

We are then informed that a meeting with Neve has been arranged at a bar in Dock Town, where we shall learn more about the case she’s currently on. If we help her, she will be more inclined to join us.

Maevaris introduces us to the Templars Rana and Brom, who we remember from Tevinter Nights. Rana does appear in DATV as a friend of Neve’s, but Brom somehow died between the book and the game. In this rewrite, I would actually like to show a bit of Brom before that happens.

Before we head off into Dock Town, we get a small chance to explore the Shadow Lair and talk to some of the Shadow Dragons.

Once we are done exploring, we talk to Rana and Brom and head into Dock Town.

Dock Town

We leave the Undercity through the vast catacombs and sewers. Rana and Brom know how to navigate the tunnels, and so do we. The Shadow Dragons reside in an especially labyrinthine part of Minrathous’ underground to avoid being easily discovered by the Magisterium.

When we first see Dock Town, it’s late afternoon, but it feels like nighttime. A seemingly permanent shadow, cast by the splendorous towers and palace of the wealthier areas, looms over the entire district. There is an immediate sense of dystopian oppression. These truly are the slums of Minrathous. Rook acknowledges that yes, unfortunately, Tevinter mostly feels like this when you're not an Altus.

Rana and Brom tell us to stay with them and not to go off on our own. We wouldn't want too many people recognising us as Verus Mercar.

And thus begins our long walk through Dock Town. We can either go to the bar in a straight line, or take the time and encounter some interesting details on the road:

Alongside these more specific, scripted encounters, we see other things such as crumbling buildings, shady people lurking in the alleyways, beggars on the streets, guards and slave hunters patrolling everything, and an overall dark, rainy ambience. The idea here is to convey the atmosphere of Dock Town as efficiently as possible. This is the worst place in Minrathous, at least on the surface. There are things in the catacombs and the Undercity that we shall delve into a little later.

The Bar

After a while, we reach the bar. It’s been purposely chosen to meet at one of the lesser-known places to avoid attracting too much attention.

The moment we enter, we see just how seedy the atmosphere here is. The lights are dim, the servers don’t look us in the eyes, and the few patrons that are there keep to themselves in huddled conversations.

And now we’re going to adapt a scene from DATV but recontextualise it to make it fit into the rewritten narrative. In the very first mission, we enter a bar somewhere in Hightown to look for Neve but find that it has been overtaken by Venatori who laid a trap for us. Let’s take a close look at this scene and expand on it a little.

So, Rook, Varric, Harding, Rana, and Brom all sit down at the table and wait for Neve. But she just isn’t showing up, which is strange because, actually, she should have been there by now. Rana remarks on how Neve is always the first one at meetings like this one.

Varric leans back and tells Harding to take a few looks around. Harding notices that quite a few of the patrons are looking their way. Varric adds by noticing all of them carrying some kind of weapon. And that glint in the barkeeper’s eyes...oh yes, he saw that shit in Kirkwall all the time whenever someone was to get ambushed at the Hanged Man. He even saw Isabela plan some of those ambushes herself. Then, Brom points out that one of the men in the back should be in the dungeons. We look at the man, and recognise him as a Venatori the Shadow Dragons helped hunt down a while ago. Varric chuckles and sighs. “Well,” he says, “that’s how all the great stories begin. With the seediest bar in town, and a missing contact.”

At this point, the bar guests stand up and slowly begin moving towards us, including the bartender. She sits down at the edge of the table and looks at us rather cockily. At this point, Rook asks about Neve Gallus’ whereabouts. The barkeeper chuckles and tells us that we’re in no position to make demands or ask questions at all. The Venatori knew we would come. And now, we are going to fight. Unless...

Rook has a moment to quickly choose what he wants to do:

Since we don’t want to expose our allies’ identities, Rook steps up and recounts the accomplishments of Charon Mercar and he's just a Soporati in their eyes. But Rook is a mage, and he only learned from the best. They would do well to think twice before engaging them.

Sufficiently intimidated, the barkeeper admits that Neve was taken to the Erimond Estate in Hightown. Ah yes, that name means a lot to us. We even saw Felicia at Laskaris' gathering.

Following the little display, we leave the bar. Varric is impressed with our ability to de-escalate a situation like this. It makes him even more certain of having picked the right person for the job. But he is worried that we revealed ourselves so freely. Rook states that's still better than revealing the rest. And besides, Solas likely doesn't work with the Venatori anyway.

Now, we are, of course, familiar with the name Erimond from DAI. Livius Erimond was the Magister who, on Corypheus’ orders, corrupted the Grey Wardens of Orlais and caused them to sacrifice their own to unleash a demon army. He was apprehended by the Inquisitor. But his sister, Felicia, still roams freely, as seen in Tevinter Nights. In the years following DAI, she has assumed the role of Magister Erimond and now owns a large portion of the Slave Bazaar.

Rana and Brom know that getting to Erimond Estate, especially with Venatori involved, will be difficult. There are most likely more Venatori patrolling the streets, which might cause all kinds of skirmishes. We are now presented with a choice:

We let the others know of the third option, to which everyone agrees wholeheartedly. Good that Mercar knows so much. Rana and Brom will accompany us, since they're Templars. Brom even mentions that there is currently a military parade going on in Hightown, so it would be a perfect masquerade. In the meantime, Varric and Harding will go and alert some of the Shadow Dragons to act as potential back-up should things go awry.

We bid a momentary farewell to Varric and Harding and make for Hightown with Rana and Brom.

Hightown

We get treated to a cutscene that shows Rook approach a lonely legionnaire. After knocking him out, he drags him into a corner, and emerges in his armour. We then reunite with Rana and Brom and make our way into Hightown. This is an absolute contrast to the Minrathous we saw in Dock Town. This part of the city is rich, vibrant, glittering, with magic at absolutely every corner. This is the Minrathous all the stories speak of.

In the distance, we see great landmarks such as the Archon’s Palace floating in the sky, the Argent Spire looming over everything, the Circle of Magi, once a Temple of Razikale, shimmering in arcane lights; and everywhere we look, we see richly dressed people, guards, soldiers, magisters, but also rows upon rows of chained slaves being ushered around, as well as slaves tending to their masters and being mistreated whenever they do something wrong.

Our plan is simple: get to the Erimond Estate without arousing suspicions, and releasing Neve Gallus. We then see a march of freshly enlisted mage legionnaires, children of magisters and wealthy laetans, parading down the road, towards the harbour. Soon, they shall sail against the Qunari in Seheron. Everyone praises Imperator Laskaris for finally seemingly getting an edge against the Antaam. The new warriors are escorted by Knight-Commander Lenos and other high-ranking members of the Imperial Templar Order. Rana comments on how the Divine and even the Archon will likely personally see them off. To make the illusion seem as real as possible, we follow along, marching with our fellow legionnaires. The parade will head directly past the Erimond Estate, we can just slip away when it's time. And while we're parading around, we can see a few things:

Overall, Hightown invokes incredible splendour, but given what we’ve seen of Dock Town and the Undercity, we get a greater sense of the sheer dystopia that is Minrathous.

At some point during the march, we move forward, and find ourselves, shockingly, facing our own father, Charon Mercar. He's alive after all. We can choose to either keep our cool or reveal ourselves to him. Verus is a bit emotional, so he gives himself away. But...Charon doesn't recognise us. He simply orders us all around and threatens us with disciplinary action should we step out of line again. There is something about his face...his eyes glow in a slight red. As we look at his neck, we can barely see the traces of a blood collar. He's still being controlled by Laskaris. Before we can do anything, Brom points out that we have reached the Erimond Estate. We vow to save our father as soon as we can, and move away.

Arriving at the Erimond Estate

At one point, we finally reach the Erimond Estate. It is a dark castle-like building standing amidst a lush but soulless-looking garden. Rana and Brom stand beside us and we march towards the doors looking as official as possible. The plan is to convince whoever opens the door that we're here for Felicia's safety.

Upon reaching the main doors, we are stopped by a mage by the name of Crispin Kavlo. As we know from Tevinter Nights, Kavlo is one of the Venatori and a close associate of Felicia.

Kavlo demands to know what we're doing here. We can either let the Templars do the talking or chime in ourselves. Since we're playing on high Charisma, we convince Kavlo that we're here to provide safety for Magister Erimond, on orders passed down from the Imperator himself. Kavlo thinks for a moment but then lets us in.

What follows next is a cutscene of Kavlo and a few lower Venatori grunts leading us through the estate, towards the dungeons, as there seems to have been a crisis downstairs involving their newest prisoners. Many guards did not return from there.

Neve Gallus

We enter the dungeons of the Erimond Estate and find ourselves looking at a strange image: everything is frozen. And we’re not even the first Venatori to arrive, as several other grunts stand scattered around the dungeons, all frozen solid.

Just as Kavlo begins shouting in confused rage, a lonely figure steps out of the icy fog before us: Neve Gallus. She’s frozen up all the Venatori and was just waiting for more to show up so that she has an easier time dealing with Felicia later.

Kavlo wants to leave but Neve freezes the door shut. Kavlo howls at us to subdue Neve. That's when we drop our charade and take off our helmets. Neve is happy to see the three of us. We immediately side with her against Kavlo.

A mini-boss fight ensues in which Rook and Neve go up against Kavlo and the Venatori, assisted by Rana and Brom. A small gimmick here is that Kavlo will occasionally unfreeze some of the grunts to add to the number of enemies, and we can prevent him from doing that.

Once Kavlo is defeated, he’ll spout some Venatori dogma to us before Neve utterly disarms him. She then immediately asks for our opnion on what should happen to Kavlo. We could:

There is sense in keeping a Venatori hostage, we know that quite well. So we choose to let Kavlo live. Neve immediately freezes him, intending to thaw him later, once Felicia is dealt with.

We have a quick reunion with Neve, who didn't expect to see us back so soon. She recalls how Maevaris set up a meeting at the bar and deduces that we are the reason. We confirm this. The mission Varric took us on requires her help as well. When we ask her about the Venatori apprehending her, and she lets us know that she deliberately let them follow and imprison her because that would get her close to Felicia. If we help her apprehend her now, she will join us on our mission without question. She has a feeling she’s going to need to lay low for a while after this stunt anyway.

Neve lets us know that Felicia is somewhere on the upper floors of the Erimond Estate. Even though she managed to freeze some of the Venatori in the basement, there will be more. But since we’re both capable fighters, this shouldn’t be a problem. She then talks to Rana and Brom and suggests they keep the lower floors clear and bring some back-up. We might need it. The two Templars agree and leave, whereas the two of us have a Magister to catch.

The Erimond Estate

We now have a pretty simple goal for the rest of this quest: fight our way through the Erimond Estate and confront Felicia. Together with Neve as our companions, we leave the dungeons and get right to it.

Aside from encountering a few groups of Venatori in the various rooms and corridors, there are a few other encounters we come across:

Throughout our advance further into the Erimond Estate, we really get a sense for how wealthy such a single Magister is. We see arcane decorations everywhere, relics passed down from generations of Erimonds. It’s clear that this family has been around for quite a while. We even see a portrait of Livius Erimond on very open display, suggesting that Felicia does miss him in some capacity.

Felicia Erimond

At some point, we reach Felicia’s study and dispatch the Venatori guards outside. We enter and find ourselves in a large and lavish room, with arcane glyphs all over the floor.

Felicia Erimond sits at a very large desk and looks up, pretty unbothered. She wondered when Neve would finally show up. Then, she inspects us and recognises us from the Coliseum. She's quite frankly surprised that we're still alive. Neve immediately notes that Felicia must have something up her sleeve, given her calm demeanour.

Rook directly asks her about the blood collars, to which Felicia simply responds with Laskaris finally having a vision so many before him lacked. Once the Qunari are subdued, they can finally restore Tevinter to its full glory and return the worship of the Old Gods. Enough with the profanity that is the Chant of Light.

Felicia reveals her staff, the tip of which shows a large glass crystal filled with blood. A few side doors open, and a bunch of slaves enter, who have already undergone the blood collar procedure. Now, they are all controlled by Felicia, and she orders them to attack us, unwilling to let anyone hinder her.

This is the first phase of the boss fight, in which all we do is go against the controlled slaves. Neve immediately takes note of the glyphs on the ground, urging us to activate them when the slaves are above them. We do so, and paralysation glyphs are triggered, immobilising the slaves. This is a little gimmick of this fight, where we can, with increased difficulty, trigger paralysis glyphs and get rid of the slaves in a non-lethal manner, until Felicia herself is dealt with.

Once all the slaves are taken care of, one way or another, Felicia herself joins the fray and attacks us with her full power. She is an accomplished blood and fire mage and unleashes spell after spell without really allowing us many breaks in-between.

At some point, if any of the slaves are still alive, she will attempt to drain them of their blood to heal herself. We have a few seconds to prevent her from doing that by unleashing all manner of counterattacks. If we fail to stop her and she does this at least three times, she will turn into an abomination, making the last stage of the fight additionally difficult. If we defeat her like that, she is killed no matter what.

For this playthrough, let’s say we’ve been good with our timing and managed to save all slaves from her blood draining. By the third time she attempts this, we shatter her staff and deal an ultimate blow that knocks her off her feet, ending the fight.

Since she is not an abomination in this outcome, we now get a choice. Neve urges to keep her alive so that we may extract further information from her. But we look at the slaves and what she did to them and find our anger rising. Here’s the choice:

Rook sees the temptation of just murdering Felicia on the spot, but he also sees the reason in letting her live. With great reluctance, we agree with Neve. Similar to Kavlo, Neve freezes Felicia, imprisoning her until she can be questioned later.

Before we leave, we get a chance to explore Felicia’s study. What we find is a ledger detailing many recent slave purchases and where they were sent to. We decide to take the book with us and hand it over to the Shadow Dragons.

Leaving the Erimond Estate

Once we reach the main hall of the Erimond Estate, the doors open and in walk Varric, Harding, Rana, Brom, and a few Imperial Templars led by Tarquin and Knight-Captain Jahvis, whom we remember from Tevinter Nights. We have a quick reunion with Tarquin, who's happy to see us back and in such a competent manner.

After a quick explanation of what transpired, we line up the frozen Venatori, Kavlo and Felicia first among them, which gets a whistle from Varric, who is surprised at how many deaths we managed to avoid.

We now have a choice at what to do with the Venatori:

We don’t really want to risk them being freed again, so we give them over to the Shadow Dragons, alongside the ledger and the freed slaves.

All in all, this mission has proven to be rather fruitful in terms of the yielded results.

Back in the Shadow Lair

We are back in the Shadow Lair and deliver our mission report to Maevaris, who is very much pleased with the outcome. With the freed slaves, the ledger, and the imprisoned Venatori, the Shadow Dragons now have their work cut out for them for the next few weeks. One big step closer to stopping Laskaris and bringing some light back to Tevinter.

Neve reunites with Varric and Harding, whom she remembers from the Missing comic, and Varric, of course, from the more recent event at the Coliseum. She asks if the job she’s about to be hired for concerns the Dread Wolf, which Varric confirms. Well, this time, Neve is ready to give it a shot by joining directly. Rook has proven himself a capable ally to rely upon once again.

With Neve recruited, we leave the Shadow Dragons for now, returning to Isabela on the Silence, who takes us back to the Dumat.

Back on the Dumat

We find ourselves back on the Dumat, with Neve Gallus as our new party member. Neve marvels at the sheer ingenuity by which this underwater submarine has been constructed. She expected the Inquisition to not have many resources left after its disbanding, but it appears she was wrong. She very much looks forward to seeing how this mission will play out.

From this moment on, Neve counts as one of our party members and can be found in a new area on the Dumat.

The completion of the quest also unlocks the Shadow Lair as an accessible hub for us to travel to and do some Shadow Dragon and Minrathous-exclusive quests. We shall touch on them more later.

The Study

With Neve now a member of our crew, we can access the ship’s study. It is located not far away from the meeting chamber and hosts several desks and boards to gather and display clues and evidence.

We find Neve there, who has made the place her own already. She commends the Dumat on being so active and silent at the same time, allowing her to fully focus on the evidence she’s studying.

Aside from being able to converse with Neve here, the room also introduces a fun little mechanic: We can track all of our choices and how they connect to outcomes and impacts further along. It’s all on display like one of those detective boards where all the dots and threads are, in some way, connected.

We also find a memory crystal here, brought from the Shaperate in the Dwarven Embassy. This allows us to replay missions, although we won’t be able to make any different choices, since this is meant to be just a memory of what we did.

The Other Rooks

And now let's take a look at how the other Rooks may have experienced some different elements to this mission.

Grey Wardens

Veil Jumpers

• Rook is able to provide some additional history and theories on how Tevinter is built upon the bones of Elvhenan.

Antivan Crows

Mourn Watch

Lords of Fortune

Act 1

Part 4 - Regional Quests in Minrathous

For the past entries of this, at this point massive, rewrite, we have been exclusively looking at the main story, with one exception dedicated to the hub. But what about the side quests? We need to have those in an RPG.

We have now finished recruiting both Neve and Bellara. As such, we have unlocked Minrathous and Arlathan Forest as destinations we can travel to and explore on our own merit. We could, of course, just steamroll on ahead and proceed with the main quest, but that would be too easy for me. I can sit here and pitch along and along, but one often tends to forget that side quests, when done right, can be just as engaging, for some people even more so, than the main story.

So, for the next two chapters, we shall be diving deep into pitching a bunch of side content Rook can come across in his travels throughout Minrathous and Arlathan Forest. As you can guess from the title, this chapter focuses on the former.

So let’s get right into it! This shall be interesting.

Distinction between Quest Types

Before we dive into anything remotely plot-related, let’s take a moment to talk about the different types of quests Veilguard originally presented us with.

So, first of all, there are the Main Quests. These are, obviously, the ones driving the story forward, the main plot we follow until the very end of the game. We have been doing that for the entirety of this hypothetical playthrough so far.

Then, there are the Companion Quests. These are side quests, yeah, but so intrinsically tied to the main story that one pretty much has to do them as well in order to get the most optimal outcome possible. And I’m all for it, I think companion quests should very much be an important part of any BioWare game.

Thirdly, there are the Faction Quests. These quests, in theory, are designed to further the plot and advancement of one of the six factions and directly impact the nation or region they represent. I think that was done rather well in some cases (like the Archon choice being related to the Shadow Dragons), and less so in others (like the Lords of Fortune only having the Hall of Valour and a dragon hunt). These can be skipped if one can’t be asked to do all of it, but it’s better to complete them if one wants the respective faction to have the best possible outcome.

And lastly, there are the Regional Quests. These are side quests in their truest form. Random one-shot adventures that are both meant to flesh out the world and provide additional challenges for us to go through. They can be skipped entirely with little to no effect on the main story. At least, that’s how it was in Veilguard.

Now, I will give credit where it’s due. I very much appreciate that Veilguard steered away from that fetch fest we had in Inquisition. I really don’t want to spend my time exploring Thedas by searching for bear pelts, delivering flowers to someone’s grave, or closing a thousand rifts at the courtesy of Solas. However, my problem with Veilguard’s side quests is a bit of a weird one: I think there are too few of them. And most of those we do get revolve around the “go there and kill this” concept.  What I’m missing are proper opportunities to roleplay and truly explore the world. What DAI did well was give us a lot of exploration missions, where we just learn about Thedas.

But wouldn’t making interesting side quests be a waste of time? Well, no. I remember playing Witcher 3 and being absolutely enamoured with the side quests. Each one told a rich, unique story that fleshed out Geralt’s world in ways that would not have been possible if it were just the main quest we were following. I remember being obsessed with the side content in Baldur’s Gate 3 and how seamlessly it tied into the main story. Everything was, in some shape or form, connected and only served to widen the narrative.

It was my biggest hope that Veilguard would learn from Witcher 3 and come up with interesting side content that we can truly sink our teeth into. I mean, even Origins managed that, and that was the first game in the series. Overall, I think side content has been rather regressing in DA as a whole. And I think that’s because a lot of roleplay mechanics were more and more scrapped with each subsequent entry, with Veilguard being the most linear Dragon Age title ever, with, unfortunately, the least replay value. We are looking to change that here.

I would like to add one more thing before we get into it: What I just listed are the types of quests the vanilla Veilguard presents us with. We may discover one or two more types as we go along here, who knows?

Right, enough waffling on my part. Let’s take a look at the Regional Quests in Minrathous during Act 1 of our Dreadwolf playthrough.

Aboard the Dumat

Returning to Rook, he currently finds himself back on the Dumat. We could either proceed to the Meeting Chamber and receive our next main quest, or we could return to either Minrathous or Arlathan Forest and see if we may, in some shape or form, contribute to the efforts against the Dread Wolf on our own, without waiting for the Inquisitor’s intel. Besides, the Shadow Dragons and Veil Jumpers might need all the help we can give them, even though our forces aren’t that great yet.

At this point, we would like to see how Minrathous is doing, so we set course for Tevinter’s capital.

Back in the Shadow Lair

Once we leave the Dumat, we find ourselves back at the Shadow Lair. This serves as our main hub and refuge while we are in Minrathous. As this is Act 1, the only parts of Minrathous we have any access to are the Undercity and Dock Town. We’ll unlock some more places later, but for now, that’s all we get.

While this chapter focuses on Regional Quests alone, there will be others in the future that deal with faction-specific content and free roaming in general, without any quests attached, because that is something you can do here, but perhaps not on the scale of DAI.

In Act 1, we can come across four side quests spread across the Undercity and Dock Town. I shall not describe them in such meticulous and long detail as I do the main story stuff. But hopefully still well enough! Let’s get into them (oh and the headers are not the actual quest names, I’m just using them as working titles).

Trouble in the Sewers

While exploring the Undercity, Rook, Harding, and Neve stumble across a grim scene: several beggars and escaped slaves have been mercilessly torn to shreds in the dark and flooded streets. We investigate the bodies and find lots of bite marks of small but sharp teeth, as well as traces of sharp claws. Harding also discovers faint traces of lyrium. Neve sighs. This is probably the result of a Magister experimenting around with lyrium once again. It happens all the time. A Magister does something, it goes wrong, they spill it into the sewers, and whatever creature gets close to it first experiences rather unfortunate effects. It would be in our best interest to hunt and kill the beast. We have heard of this ourselves, as someone hailing from Tevinter. We ask Neve if the myth about a giant lizard living in Minrathous' sewers is true. She only chuckles.

Before we can proceed further, we are intercepted by a dwarf called Karaht. Neve recognises him instantly. He is from the Sewer Watch, monster hunters specifically trained and employed to hunt down whatever foul being tries to crawl out of the sewers. As a Shadow Dragon, we have heard of those guys too. While we quietly respect them immensely, we wouldn't ever want to switch places with them.

Karaht prefers to work alone. He’s a proud dwarf from the Warrior Caste and an esteemed member of the Dwarven Embassy. He’s permitted to work with the Sewer Watch because they operate beneath Minrathous. As such, he would not be breaking Orzammar’s laws by going to the surface. Although, from what he hears lately, King Bhelen has been more and more successful in getting the Assembly to adopt a more progressive view.

We can choose to either let Karaht have his way and pursue the creature alone or we can insist on accompanying him. We are quite an empathic and justice-loving Rook, so we want a part in avenging the senseless deaths of these poor souls. Karaht eventually relents and bids us to follow him into the sewers.

On our way through the sewers, we get to know a bit about Karaht. He left for the Embassy in Minrathous at the first opportunity given to him. And we actually get to ask how dwarves migrate from Orzammar to Minrathous without losing their status. Is there truly a way through the Deep Roads that still connects the two cities after all this time? There is not, says Karaht, but Orzammar developed special windowless carriages made entirely out of underground stone. They leave Orzammar underground and get navigated either by surface dwarves or hired mercenaries. Usually, the dwarf’s entire family migrates to Minrathous, as it is a very costly and lengthy process. So whenever a dwarf embarks for the Embassy, it’s usually forever.

Karaht is good at his job because, as a dwarf from Orzammar, he has both Stone Sense and a natural resistance to lyrium, both of which very much come in handy here. Thanks to the presence of lyrium waste in this particular case, he can perceive its trail through the flooded passages, allowing us to chase the beast.

Eventually, we are attacked by swarms of rats, all of which have been corrupted and mutated by lyrium in the water. What the fuck is going on here? Harding is amazed; she’s never seen anything like this before. And she’s been in Minrathous’ sewers before. Neve and Karaht, however, are not seeing this for the first time. Rook has heard of it, and is not surprised to see it.

Karaht leaves one rat alive and forces it to retreat back to wherever its nest is. While the several teeth marks match the rats, where did the claws come from? We’re about to find out.

Eventually, we come across a bleak and stinking chamber with blue-shimmering water. From within the water, a being emerges: a gigantic rat, absolutely bloated and twisted by the lyrium in the water. Well, this is going to be tough. Rook’s team and Karaht engage the Rat King in a fierce battle. Eventually, the beast is struck down and sent to the foul depths. As a Tevinter mage, we do love our country, but this is disgusting.

But that’s not all. After investigating the area for a bit, we find a crate of lyrium. Neve deduces that it was intentionally poured into the water. Someone purposely corrupted these rats. But why?

Karaht promises to keep us in the loop and thanks us for our cooperation. We’re tougher than he first presumed.

Abductions in the Undercity

Unfortunately, lyrium rats are not the only problem the poor people in the Undercity face. At some point, Rook, Varric, and Neve are approached by Elek Tavor, a member of the Threads crime syndicate and one of Neve’s contacts. We do know him from Veilguard. This side quest can actually serve as our introduction to him, if we take the time to explore the world.

He heard that Neve is back in town, and with competent people at that. As such, he asks for our help in the name of the Threads. Someone has been abducting the people of the Undercity. They practically disappear during the night, and nobody can ever catch whoever’s doing it. As someone who stands in for the people, we accept the quest.

Elek directs us to the house where the most recent abduction took place, and we go about investigating the perimeter.

We look around this hovel (seriously, the houses in the Undercity are the worst of the worst; Gamlen’s house in Kirkwall is a 5-star hotel in comparison), where a family of elves resided. We find traces of struggle, even a fight, but one that obviously ended in a pretty one-sided manner. As a mage, we do, however, also detect traces of magic in the air. We also find a strange, golden fang, which we present to Elek. He recognises it immediately: it belongs to a man called Goldfang, for the golden fang he uses in place of a tooth. Nobody knows who he was before, only that he is a mage heavily addicted to deathroot concoctions, which are known to instil powerful hallucinations. But Goldfang hasn’t been seen in a while, so it now falls to us to track him down, as he clearly seems to be involved.

And thus begins a bit of a process, where we scour the Undercity in search of Goldfang. We can give coin to the people and see if they remember anything, we can intimidate some who seem like they know something (but not too much, otherwise they will turn antagonistic), we could also ask the Shadow Dragons if they know anything.

At some point, however, we are suddenly encircled by a bunch of...children. There are three of them, and they don’t give their names. They never got any, for they are Qunari, taken by a Tevinter slaver ship from Seheron a while ago. The ship sank, and they swam ashore. Now they are orphans living in the Undercity, trying to carve out some kind of existence for themselves. They can help us, for the family that was taken was good to them. And they know where Goldfang is. But if we want their help, we must first do a few things for them:

Since we took that extra effort, the children will tell us that Goldfang has been having dealings with a man in white armour, and point us to where the meetings usually take place. They overheard the last meeting, and know that he will go for a pair of beggars next. Now, a small choice comes before us:

We decide to take a risk and go for the second option. Varric is so reminded of Kirkwall throughout the entirety of this adventure. But Minrathous is much, much worse.

We find the two beggars in question and wait in the shadows. Eventually, Goldfang comes along, with a huge gap in his mouth where the fang should have been. He’s absolutely a pathetic sight to behold: thin, dressed in rags, and with a strange mark on his face, which we...which we recognise! It's the Mark of Disgrace, the same one we applied to Vilius a while ago. Goldfang was a legionnaire.

Goldfang attacks the beggars, and we really have to rein ourselves in to not interfere yet. Eventually, Goldfang drags the beggars into a secret tunnel, which is presumably how he came and went without anyone noticing. We quickly follow him through the tunnel and eventually come to a staircase leading to the surface.

There, Goldfang presents the beggars to a Centurio of the Imperial Legion, a mage wearing gleaming white armour. The Centurio gives Goldfang a few bottles of deathroot concoction and promises him that his debt will soon be paid.

We want to interfere, but Neve cautions us that attacking and possibly killing a Centurio might have consequences for the people of the Undercity. Well, who said anything about killing?

The Centurio sees us and demands to know who we are. We, in turn, demand to know why the Legion is dishonouring itself so, and why one branded with the Mark of Disgrace is doing this. The Centurio notices that we're a mage from Tevinter, and his tone shifts to something more cordial. He tells us that all that's happening is a former warrior reclaiming his lost honour. He tells Goldfang to tell us what he did, for he sees that we are, at least in some shape or form, familiar with the Legion. Goldfang admits to being a mage of the Legion himself, a former one at least. At some point, as his troop was fighting in Seheron, they came upon a settlement of Tamassrans and children they were tasked to educate. The order was to kill them all, but Goldfang refused. For that, he was branded with the Mark of Disgrace and thrown out of the military. With nowhere to go, he retreated into the Undercity, where he eventually lost himself. The deathroot helps him remember the times when he was still strong and proud.

The Centurio hired him to abduct the wretched and unfortunate so that they might be used for Laskaris’ Salvatio Initiative, and given purpose once again. If he did it enough times, he would even receive an audience with the Imperator to be reinstated.

Well, the Salvatio Initiative, this bloody thing again. Right, what do we do with the Centurio, first and foremost:

• We can convince him to take Goldfang back into the Legion without any of this being necessary.
• We can fight him.

We choose the latter. We know that Laskaris is turning the Legion into a place of horror for its own soldiers. We won't expose Goldfang to that, and neither any innocents. We fight the Centurio and bring him down. We now have another choice:

• Do we kill him?
• Do we brand him with the Mark of Disgrace and let him live?

Well, justice is ironic. We brand the Centurio with the Mark of Disgrace and send him on his way to be punished. Now, we turn to Goldfang, who cowers in fear. Regarding him, we also have a choice:

You see, he is just one of countless examples of how Tevinter absolutely fucks over its people time and time again. We choose to give him to the Shadow Dragons, so that he may at least receive a chance to start off somewhere better again. Varric approves of this. It reminds him of Lavellan’s judgments from the throne of Skyhold. She, too, always judged wisely and mercifully, believing in second chances.

We then return to Elek and report on the outcome of the quest. He’s disappointed that we didn’t give Goldfang over to the Threads, since the Undercity is their territory, not that of the Shadow Dragons. If Goldfang harms anyone again, he will personally assassinate him in his sleep.

The Sinking Ship

As Rook, Neve, and Harding move through Dock Town, they suddenly hear a disembodied voice calling them from afar. Neve recognises it from somewhere, although she can’t quite place it.

We eventually leave the houses behind and stand on a rocky cliff, overlooking the waters outside Minrathous. A shape materialises out of thin air, taking the form of a young girl. This is Dock Town’s spirit of Compassion, and Neve recognises it. How can the spirit exist outside the Fade? Well, it can only do so fleetingly. Usually, it only visits people in their dreams. But the Veil in Minrathous is so thin that it can, for a brief time, materialise itself.

Compassion points us towards a ship that ran ashore. Neve sighs. That is a slaver ship right there. Probably from Seheron. Rook's face darkens. Yeah, we have seen those in our own time. Compassion tells us that there are people trapped aboard, people forgotten about by the rest of the city. They will drown if nobody helps them.

Harding is instantly reminded of Cole, who was also a spirit of Compassion at first, and feels a strong urge to help. We agree to help.

We make our way across the cliffs and jump aboard. Immediately, the ship stirs beneath us and slowly starts sinking into the dark waters. Ah shit, we have a time limit on our hands. Compassion feels four beings trapped beneath the deck, we have to hurry.

Back on the cliffs, Compassion thanks us for showing enough mercy to save everyone. It slowly vanishes and departs back into the Fade.

Now, what to do with the people we rescued? The sailor can just return home; he has a wife and child. But we intimidate him into never working on a slave ship again. The elf is sent to the Shadow Dragons, who will, when they can, send her back home. The Qunari warrior...hmm...well, what to do with him? He warns us that if he enters Minrathous, he won’t stop rampaging. And he is actually about to turn on us, too, since Rook and Neve are Saarebas. We can either try to persuade him to leave or fight him. Fortunately, high Charisma player right here. The Qunari turns away and leaves Minrathous behind. Now, the slaver herself. We are so giving her to the Shadow Dragons. She will never enslave anyone ever again. May Maevaris and the rest treat her according to what she deserves.

Rook, Neve, and Harding remain standing on the cliff. At least, they saved lives.

The Broken Chantry

At some point, as we traverse Dock Town, Rook, Neve, and Bellara come across a scene where a few legionnaires loudly threaten a Revered Father. If he doesn’t vacate the premises within the day, they will come and drag him out of there. The Maker will certainly understand the necessity.

They slam him to the ground and leave him lying in the dirt. We approach and decide to help him up. As a Tevinter mage, we happen to be a devout Andrastian ourselves, albeit from the Imperial Chantry branch, of course. Neve knows him. This is Father Tullus, a genuinely devout cleric who came to live in Dock Town in hopes of providing comfort to the downtrodden and unfortunate and bringing them closer to the Maker. But in recent times, ever since the Qunari doubled their attacks and the war grew more violent, the masses have been decreasing. Eventually, his Templars and brothers left him, and he is all alone in his faith. Now, the Imperial Legion has shown up and offered to buy the Chantry off of him. It’s a sturdy building and would serve excellently as Dock Town’s recruitment centre, from where they can enlist more people for the war effort. Tullus declined, and kept declining, until the legionnaires lost their patience and threatened to take it by force, which they have now decided to do.

Neve states that the loss of the Chantry would be yet another act of demoralisation for Dock Town, even though the masses are sparse nowadays. Tullus tells us that the Legion might change its mind if it sees the Chantry being unquestionably packed and fully used again. The Imperial Chantry still holds authority against the military. We know this, and agree to help. After all, as Mercar, we have experience with the Legion.

Tullus thanks and blesses us. We need three things in order for the Chantry to be taken seriously again:

When all is said and done, we watch the mass from afar. Before Father Tullus can start, however, a delegation of the Imperial Legion disrupts the gathering and calls for everyone to vacate the premises. We can either respond with violence, interfere verbally as someone familiar with the Legion, or wait and see what happens. We choose the second option.

We step in front of the legionnaires and demand to know on whose authority they are trying to dismantle the Chantry. We then state several military laws that would, in this situation, prevent them from doing so. The legionnaires are surprised, and immediately shift their tone to one of greater respect. But then they tell us that the order came from Laskaris himself, this overrules all military laws.

Out of the crowd steps Knight-Captain Jahvis, followed by Rana and Brom. Jahvis presents a writ signed by Divine Aequitas II. that officially permits the continued existence of the Chantry, overruling anything Laskaris might say. The Imperial Divine, after all, is second in power only to the Archon. The legionnaires accept defeat and move away.

Father Tullus gratefully delivers the promised mass and invites us to stand beside him. The people of Dock Town see us, and are glad.

Bellara wonders if our faiths could ever coexist in peace. Well, the Inquisitor somehow managed to unite all under her banner, and she is a Dalish, too. Maybe someday.

The Other Rooks

As always, now is the time to highlight some of the differences if we happen to play other versions of Rook here.

Grey Wardens

Antivan Crows

Mourn Watch

Lords of Fortune